Rockland County Executive Ed Day announced Wednesday a revised order meant to bar New York City from transporting migrants to stay within the county.
The new order comes after a federal judge on June 6 determined Rockland and Orange counties' initial emergency orders meant to block New York City from contracting with motels and hotels for migrant housing were unconstitutional.
Day's new order prohibits a municipal government outside Rockland County from establishing "a temporary shelter or housing" in the county.
“It is my duty to protect the general welfare of anyone in the County or coming to the County both long term and short term,” Day said. “This County already has a housing crisis so extreme that Rockland has been unprecedently deputized by the State of New York to take over Building and Fire Code enforcement in the Village of Spring Valley. Sending busloads of people to this County that does not have the infrastructure to care for them will likely result in a one-way bus ticket to homelessness.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams' move to have migrants voluntarily placed in communities outside of New York City has led to a tangle of legal challenges and orders from local government officials meant to block the action.
Adams himself has sued 30 counties, including Rockland, over the migrant program.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday said she was still seeking federal approval for temporary migrant housing at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. Hochul added any effort to house migrants temporarily at State University of New York campuses will ultimately be up to Adams.
"I said I would look and survey all available properities. I've done that, I've offered that to the mayor," Hochul said. "Some SUNY facilities we may be able to find a dorm to go into the fall. It may not work."
The New York Civil Liberties Union in May challenged the county-level orders, arguing that blocking migrants from staying in hotels and motels was a violation of their rights.