Suffolk legislature to announce plan to block New York City from sending migrants to the county

The Suffolk County Legislature is considering using its powers to try to block New York City from placing in the county asylum-seeking migrants who have been bused from the southern border.

The announcement, from the office of the presiding officer, comes as the administration of Mayor Eric Adams is running out of room for the nearly 900 migrants now often arriving daily — at least 67,000 since last spring — and is looking to every county in the state for help.

On Wednesday, Adams’ deputy for health and human services said that although Suffolk and Nassau counties haven’t yet been asked to take migrants, each would be asked at some point. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that the state is considering using SUNY as temporary migrant housing.

In a news release Saturday, the office of Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey said he and other leaders would, Sunday morning, “announce steps the legislature will take to prevent New York City from sending thousands of undocumented immigrants to Suffolk County communities.”

The legislature, the release said, “will use whatever legislative powers it holds to ensure the residents of Suffolk County do not shoulder the financial burden” of the crisis.

Reached Saturday, McCaffrey spokesman Michael Martino would not disclose specifics.

Adams’ office didn’t immediately return a message Saturday night seeking comment.

Adams has said that the pace of arrivals to the city would “rapidly accelerate" because of the expiration May 11 of an expulsion policy, under Title 42 of federal law, that had been in place since early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike almost anywhere else in the country, New York City is under a legal mandate to provide shelter to whoever needs it.

Nationwide, migrants who seek asylum are typically given court dates years in the future, and the majority won’t be allowed to stay in the U.S. legally, according to the most recent available figures from the TRAC data research center at Syracuse University.

It’s unclear which local legislative actions, if any, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone would support, and his press office didn’t return a message Saturday. Last week, Bellone said of the crisis, “It falls in your lap, and you’ve gotta address it, and we’re committed to doing that in a responsible, fiscally responsible and a humane way as well,” but he did not offer specifics.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman says the county has plans for handling any relocation attempts by New York City, but he has declined to disclose them. His spokesman, Chris Boyle, didn't respond to a message Saturday. City officials “invited people there, and we have not,” Blakeman said last week.

Hundreds of migrants are already living on Long Island — having moved to Nassau and Suffolk counties in the past few months after being bused to New York City from the southern border — but the migrants moved to the Island on their own, not as part of a formal relocation program by the city.

Some of them are working on Long Island and enrolling their children in local schools, which under state law cannot refuse to admit a student because of the child’s immigration status. Most of the migrants are from Latin America. 

On Tuesday, Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar signed an executive order forbidding motels and other facilities in the town from accepting migrants from the city. She said that allowing anywhere to accept “an influx” of migrants would create a nuisance and burden taxpayers.

Aguiar’s executive order and others like it have drawn some criticism, including from OLA of Eastern Long Island, a Latino advocacy organization.

“OLA is concerned that the Orders will cause an increase in hate crimes and violence against the Latino community, and communities of color in Riverhead and even throughout the East End,” the statement said.

Judges in Orange and Rockland counties, where New York City has tried to place migrants, have granted local officials’ requests to temporarily suspend a city plan to house several hundred at hotels there. There is a lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union against those two counties, challenging policies blocking relocation. 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.