(Updated: May 17, 6 a.m.) Reacting to reports of an impending “high influx” of undocumented migrants being sent to Riverhead from New York City, Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar declared a state of emergency Tuesday night.
Aguiar signed an executive order declaring the state of emergency Tuesday night “based on information received and in response to reports that the New York City Department of Homeless Services has, or will be arranging for the transportation and relocation of undocumented migrants and/or asylum seekers to hotels or motels within the Town of Riverhead,” according to a press release from the supervisor’s office issued late Tuesday evening.
In a phone interview after the press release was issued, Aguiar said her order was an effort to prevent “well over 1,000“ undocumented migrants from being bused into town from New York City.
According to Aguiar, New York City is expecting to receive 5,000 migrants a week after the expiration of Title 42, a Trump era COVID-19 policy used to turn back migrants at the southern U.S. border without giving them asylum protections. The policy expired last week.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams, already struggling to house the estimated 65,000 migrants bused to New York by states like Texas, Florida and Arizona since last spring, has been scrambling to find more space to shelter migrants in anticipation of a surge following the expiration of the Title 42 policy.
Adams initiated a call with more than 100 leaders across the state on Thursday, seeking help to house asylum seekers expected to arrive in New York City, according to reporting by The New York Times.
The call came after NYC sent two busloads of migrants to a hotel in Newburgh, in Orange County, Thursday morning, angering county officials there.
“Mayor Adams sent out an advisory to all the state-funded facilities, asking for them to house individuals that are transported to the city, and [saying] that he would support the funding and all the ancillary services that they need,” the supervisor said.
Aguiar said she heard there are three locations in Riverhead that agreed to house the migrants. She said she did not know where the locations are. She did not identify the source of her information.
“I issued an executive order to put them on notice that we will not accept these individuals,” Aguiar said. It is a matter of public safety, she said.
“We cannot — we don’t have the services, we don’t have the funding. We don’t have the locations,” the supervisor said.
Aguiar said Riverhead already has its “share of affordable housing and Section Eight” as well as “a few homeless encampments.”
Asked about the source of her information concerning what she called an impending “high influx” of undocumented migrants, Aguiar said, “I know for a fact that there was an advisory sent by (NYC) Mayor Adams to Suffolk County asking to support this.”
She said she heard “from different sources” that Curtis Sliwa on his radio talk show was talking about undocumented migrants being sent to Suffolk County. “I do have a tape recording of that,” Aguiar said. “And I did speak to him directly. My actions were not based on rumors.”
Sliwa did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday night.
A spokesperson for Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone told RiverheadLOCAL “nothing was arranged with Suffolk County.”
Aguiar said the Riverhead Police Department is sending her executive order to facilities in town “that may be signing on” to house migrants, to let them know that taking in migrants would violate the order.
Aguiar said in other places in the state, facilities providing emergency and other government-subsidized housing have turned residents out in order to take migrants in because they make more money housing the migrants.
“This will be evolving,” Aguiar said. “But that’s what a state of emergency is — to secure the safety and the health of our community,” she said.
“We’re taking the same stance as Nassau and Rockland County,” Aguiar said.
After the buses arrived in Orange County last week, the county executives of both counties issued orders last week banning housing for migrants bused from NYC. The Rockland County executive said he would use sheriff’s deputies to stop buses and turn them back. Orange County sued the Adams administration and two Newburgh hotels slated to house the migrants.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced Monday that Nassau would not participate in any sanctuary programs.
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