An upstate leader filed two lawsuits to stop Mayor Eric Adams and hotel operators from housing migrants in Orange County hotels — and booting homeless US veterans living there in the process.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus filed the lawsuits Friday in State Supreme Court against Adams and the owners of Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham in the town of Newburgh after dozens of migrants were sent on buses from New York City to the hotels beginning Thursday.
Neuhaus said that Adams had sent 82 migrants — all of them single men — to the Newburgh hotels this week.
“This is a public safety issue,” Neuhaus told The Post Friday, adding that Adams had assured Orange County leaders that no buses would arrive with migrants until further notice. “We don’t know if anyone has been vetted, we have no idea where they are from. We cannot trust the mayor.”
“Adams lied to us,” Neuhaus continued. “The State Police have been calling me and telling me, ‘We don’t know what’s going on.'”
In one galling case, 20 struggling vets were evicted from the Crossroads Hotel in order to make room for the migrants.
“It is absolutely outrageous that homeless veterans would be displaced to alleviate New York City’s migrant crisis. That Mayor Eric Adams would choose to endanger the welfare of our veterans speaks volumes to what a debacle this has become,” said Republican Congressman Mike Lawler in a statement Saturday.
Lawler represents Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties.
“First, Mayor Adams and his team announced a ‘pilot program’ for bussing migrants out of New York City without any notification of municipalities they were being sent to,” Lawler said. Then, New York City fought in court to try and strip away the local control these municipalities have to stop efforts like this. Now, Mayor Adams is literally putting homeless veterans on the street in an effort to not have to deal with the migrants arriving in New York City.”
More than 60,000 migrants have descended on New York City in the weeks before the end of Title 42, the Trump-era border policy that allowed Border Patrol officials to return migrants to Mexico that ended Thursday night.
A City Hall spokesman said Orange County needs to “do their part” to shoulder some of the migrant burden.
“New York City has cared for more than 65,000 migrants — sheltering, feeding, and caring for them, and we have done so largely without incident,” said City Hall spokesman Fabien Levy.
“Right now, we’re asking Orange County to manage less than one-quarter of 1% of the asylum seekers who have come to New York City, with New York paying for shelter, food, and services. We are reviewing our legal options,” he added
The city has been so desperate to find housing for the tidal wave of migrant arrivals that it nearly moved some families into the gym of a Brooklyn elementary school.
