Suburban New York hotel is latest symbol of immigration divide

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear that his administration is struggling to provide shelter, food and other services to the more than 65,000 asylum seekers who came to the city last year. And with a federal border policy having expired, the country is unprepared for the thousands more that are expected.

But his attempt to ease the strain on the city has angered Republican leaders in the Hudson Valley and created a new political divide in an embattled region between state and nation.

Rockland and Orange County leaders have taken legal action to ban hotels from accepting asylum seekers. The town of Orangetown, Rockland has been successful through retraining policies that have made the town attractive. But Newburgh has taken no legal action and the group of men has been welcomed by local democratic leaders and community organizations.

Orange County Legislature Kevindaryán Luján (D-Newburgh) said he and the county’s Democratic faction have opposed the actions of Orange and Rockland County executives and plan to review the legality of the county executive orders that were enacted to try to stop migrants from relocating.

“It’s disheartening to see some district leaders politicizing this issue and treating these individuals like political pawns instead of people,” he said in an interview with POLITICO. “These asylum seekers were unaware of the political circus that surrounded their arrival and I am glad that we were able to give them a warm welcome rather than traumatize them again as the district executive’s approach would have done.”

Come to find work

And although they don’t speak the language, the migrants at the hotel were aware of the debates surrounding their arrival.

Felipe Cortez, 38, from Ecuador, said he understood locals were afraid of having people in their town they didn’t know, but said they didn’t want to take anything away from anyone – they were just looking for work.

“We have to keep calm because people have ideas about who we are, but they don’t know us. If they just get to know us and see what each person is made of, they will change their mentality,” Cortez said in Spanish.

“I understand that they are upset and think we are going to mug them. It’s a normal thing, I think.”

Cortez left his wife, three daughters, and siblings at home to pave the way for a better life in America. He said he came to New York with the help of a refugee center in Texas. They issued him a ticket for a flight. When he arrived in New York, he contacted another refugee center, who told him about the Hudson Valley resettlement program.

When asked if he thought the mayor sent the men for political reasons, he replied that they were sent because they believed they could add to the labor supply in the area. Many of them are laborers – some in construction, welders or heavy machinery operators.

“We want to work and I think they focused on that and that’s why they sent us here so that we can contribute here because we are many,” he said.

He said he was promised resources and housing while they waited for work permits. He volunteered, as did all of the people he traveled with, he said.

Many say that there is medical treatment, food and money in the hotel. They also have a shuttle that takes them to the city of Newburgh and the surrounding area several times a day. The city of Newburgh is considered a city of refuge welcoming migrants but the city of Newburgh where the hotel is located does not have that status.

Adams has hinted that the city would come up for four months.

A political fight

On the front lawn of the hotel on Friday morning, a 70-year-old woman driving a black Nissan hastily pulled her car into the parking lot and approached an asylum seeker and a community official who were sitting in the sun.

First, the woman angrily denounced the spectacle caused by the arrival of “illegal immigrants” in her city. The local grandmother had a lengthy debate with Ignacio Acevedo, a Mexican immigrant who had entered the country years earlier in the same way as the man sitting next to him. He currently works for the New York Civil Liberties Union as an organizer in the Hudson Valley, supporting new migrants in the area.

The woman’s point of view was similar to that of Republican leaders in the region.

“I’m just an old senior who’s lived long enough to realize that this isn’t fair to them and to the country. Politicians must get involved on both sides. It’s not the Democrats or the Republicans; “Both sides are guilty,” she told Acevedo, but declined to give her name.

Acevedo said he wants to remind the community that migrants here are simply looking for a better life for their families and themselves. He said he sensed the racism outside the hotel from passers-by who assumed he was a migrant himself.

“Everyone deserves a chance, everyone deserves security, everyone deserves to feel welcome,” he said in an interview.

Genesis Ramos, an Orange County (D-Newburgh) Assemblyman, said she was appalled by the rhetoric used by county officials regarding the resettlement of asylum seekers. Ramos had the opportunity to go inside and personally greet the men.

“I strongly condemn their xenophobic, racist and dehumanizing rhetoric,” Ramos said in an interview. “These people, their housing, their case management, their food — everything is funded by New York City. It is not funded by the taxpayer.”

Orange County executive Steve Neuhaus said earlier this week that all he wanted was answers and a vote with the city and state on who’s coming into the county and when.

“The federal government and the city need to figure this crap out because who are these people?” he said. “Will they get citizenship? Can I get them jobs if they come here? Will they sit in hotels?”

The city can legally house migrants in hotels if it pays to do so, said Steve Acquario, executive director of the state Association of Counties.

“There are jurisdictional issues here between the mayor and the governor,” he said. “He has the law on his side to move people across the state as long as he pays to do it.”

Still, Orange and Rockland counties are both fighting the city in court over the moves, and Republican Assemblyman Marc Molinaro said the city’s actions were illegal.

Molinaro, the former Dutchess County chief executive, said he is working with area reps Mike Lawler, a Republican, and Pat Ryan, a Democrat, to try to get FEMA support to address the migrant crisis. On Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul again asked the federal government for more support.

“The crisis is here and must be dealt with with coordinated and compassionate action by federal and state governments,” he said in a phone call to reporters. “There is a solution for that that doesn’t have to be biased.”