NYC must fight migrant relocation bans in Suffolk, other municipalities, judge rules

New York City must fight Long Island municipalities and dozens of others in each county’s court, a Manhattan judge has ruled in rejecting the Adams administration's attempt to centralize challenges to local bans on relocating foreign migrants from the city.

The judge, Lyle E. Frank, wrote that the city’s lawsuit against Suffolk, Riverhead and the others cannot be heard in Manhattan, as the city sought.

Mayor Eric Adams’ lawyers are suing to stop those municipalities from enforcing emergency orders prohibiting the city from relocating any of the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived since spring 2022.

The lawsuit, filed June 7, was against 31 municipalities in the state for allegedly seeking to “wall off their borders.”

The city cited state laws, regulations and the U.S. Constitution in asking that the court suspend all emergency orders, declare them void and stop their enforcement for good.

On May 16, Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar signed an order prohibiting motels and other facilities from accepting any such migrants. On May 26, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone forbade Suffolk hotels, motels and shelters from contracting with the city to accept migrants, absent county approval.

Although Frank did not rule on the merits of the case, he ruled that the proper venue for that decision is the court in each county where each order was enacted.

“First, the material events giving rise to the litigation is not the influx of migrants arriving in New York City, the material events that give rise to this instant litigation are the issuance and enforcement of the Executive Orders issued by respondents,” he wrote in several orders filed July 21.

And, he wrote, there is no persuasive reason Manhattan — technically called New York County — ought to be where the challenges are adjudicated: “Moreover, the Court finds that the City has failed to establish any compelling circumstances as to warrant that venue remain in New York County in violation of the applicable statutes that mandate the judicial proceeding or action against a county to be in said county or in the ‘judicial district where the respondent made the determination complained of.'"

The ruling means that the cases against Riverhead and Suffolk are being transferred to Suffolk County Court.

A mayoral spokesman said, “We’re determining next steps for the litigation.”

County Executive Steve Bellone's spokeswoman Nicole Russo declined to comment.

In a text message, the Riverhead's Aguiar praised the ruling and called the city's litigation "frivolous and a waste of taxpayer funds."  

Adams has said the city is out of room to shelter migrants — now at least 57,300 and mostly from Latin America and West Africa — who have come since last spring and keep arriving.

Adams has tried, almost entirely unsuccessfully, to place some migrants in other jurisdictions in the state. There are 1,500 relocated elsewhere. The city hasn’t placed any on Long Island yet, but his deputy has said that migrants could, at some point, be sent there. 

Advocates say that several hundred of the migrants have moved out to Long Island from New York City — but on their own, not under a formal relocation effort by the city.

Upon the filing of the suit, the head of Adams' legal department, Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, denied that the case was gamesmanship to relocate proceedings away from judges elsewhere in the state so the dispute can be adjudicated in the more favorable territory of Manhattan.

"We're just saying, 'Give us a judge in New York County.' Every judge does not have the same disposition. We just don't wanna have to go to 31 different counties to work," she said. "It doesn't make sense, and judicially and towards the end, the determination to have it from one judge makes a lot of sense, not just for the city but for the state." 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

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