NYC to Remove Illegal Immigrants From Orange County Hotels Before 2025

Security stands at the doors of The Crossroads Hotel where two busloads of illegal immigrants arrived hours earlier in Newburgh, N.Y., on May 11, 2023. John Minchillo/AP Photo

New York City plans to remove from Orange County hotels all illegal immigrants in the city’s care by the end of the year, according to a Sept. 11 court file.

If the plan is implemented, it will end a yearlong court battle between the city and the county over whether the former had legally set up temporary hotels-turned-shelters in Orange County to ease the city’s strained shelter system.

“The county is encouraged that NYC has expressed its intent to facilitate the return [of illegal immigrants] to NYC. ... Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus has been ever vigilant in doing whatever is necessary to ensure the rule of law is followed for the benefit of Orange County residents,” Orange County attorney Richard Golden told The Epoch Times.

The city contracted with two Newburgh hotels and several others upstate last May when arrivals of illegal immigrants in the Big Apple reached over 60,000 in one year. At the time, more than 37,500 of them were in the city’s care.

Within days of the city’s decision, the county filed a lawsuit at the Orange County Supreme Court against both the city and hotels and obtained a temporary ban on the practice.

The city had sent 186 people to Orange County before the ban, according to an earlier court filing.

As of the Sept. 11 court filing, about 90 illegal immigrants resided at Ramada and Crossroads hotels in the town of Newburgh.

In the same filing, the Orange County counsel said that the county has agreed to the city’s proposal to move all remaining illegal immigrants at Ramanda to Crossroads and that after the consolidation move is complete, the county will cede its legal action against Ramanda.

The county’s counsel also said that the city has confirmed that it will remove all remaining illegal immigrants at Crossroads by the end of the year.

In light of the above new developments, the county’s counsel asked the court to suspend fact-finding in the case pending further city moves to save taxpayer money.

New York State allocated $25 million in the 2024 budget to relocate about 4,400 willing illegal immigrants—who have already applied for asylum—to rental apartments outside the city.

Dubbed the Migrant Relocation Assistance program, it has five cooperating counties upstate and on Long Island: Albany, Erie, Monroe, Westchester, and Suffolk.

In August, the state advanced $250 million to New York City, part of a $1 billion commitment this year to shelter and provide various services to illegal immigrants.

A recent audit by the city Comptroller’s Office found the city overpaid upstate hotels and other subcontractors by millions of dollars for sheltering illegal immigrants in May and June last year.

The city responded to the audit, which questioned payments either because of advanced verbal permissions or for legitimate reasons—for example, the city had bought meals beyond what was needed in preparation for a sudden influx at hotels.

In response to the audit, the city said that it had given undocumented verbal permission to payments beyond the scope of the contract, and that it paid for vacant hotel rooms and sometimes excess food in preparation for a likely sudden influx.