Orange County officials sued the Adams administration and two Newburgh hotels on Friday over the planned transfer of migrants from New York City shelters to the county, which they say lacks the infrastructure to support the migrants and had been left in the dark when it came to planning and coordination.
In two lawsuits filed in state Supreme Court on Friday, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said the transfer was tantamount to establishing unlicensed homeless shelters in Orange County, which is outside of the jurisdiction of the five boroughs.
“This would, overnight, more than double the county’s homeless population, with no planning, no coordination and no funding in place to support this population in the long term, who are unlikely to be either returned to the city or other locations in the medium or short term,” the lawsuit against the city reads.
Neighboring Rockland County won a temporary injunction on Thursday that halted the city’s planned transfer of migrants there. New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement that the city planned to temporarily pay for shelters for single adult men who volunteered to relocate to the suburbs sparked immediate backlash from county officials.
The executives of Rockland and Orange counties each declared a state of emergency to block Adams’ plan, which in turn invited legal scrutiny from the New York Civil Liberties Union.
But several dozen migrants arrived in Orange County via a single bus on Friday.
More than 60,000 migrants, many of whom are seeking asylum, have arrived in the city since last spring, testing the city’s identity as a sanctuary for those seeking refuge. Adams has increasingly gone on the offensive against the federal government and other localities, demanding that others step in to provide shelter and other necessities.
“Petitioners-Plaintiffs are not asserting that these particular individuals are problematic, nor are they opining on the fundamental political questions of the United…
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