Orange County, New York urged to support Caribbean asylum seekers

NEW YORK, Jun 26, CMC – Immigration advocates and legislators are calling on officials from Orange Country in New York to support Caribbean and other asylum seeker. 

The calls come after a judge granted the county a preliminary injunction that stops New York City from sending asylum seekers to hotels in there without getting a court order.

New York State Judge Sandra Sciortino also mandated that New York City continue to pay for services for the 186 asylum seekers, including Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans, who are already staying at two hotels in Newburgh, a city north of New York City.

“It is time for Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus to stop fuelling dangerous and hateful rhetoric that reinforces inaccurate portraits of vulnerable people who are simply pursuing their legal right to claim asylum,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organisation that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York.

He told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that with declining populations and the economic hardships from the pandemic still plaguing many upstate regions, this is a perfect time for Neuhaus to start focusing on the opportunities being offered to local small businesses and hotels with New York City footing the bill for new arrivals.

“Instead of infringing on the rights of business owners, we need to be working toward solutions that build our communities and our economy for all of us,” he said, adding “we are calling on Orange County to stop playing politics with people’s lives.

Orange County legislator Genesis Ramos said it’s extremely disappointing to see how County Executive Neuhaus continues to handle the situation with asylum seekers in Orange County.

“The recent injunction against the executive orders that were deemed unconstitutional and discriminatory should have been a wake-up call for him to take a collaborative approach and find real solutions. Instead, he seems to be more interested in pandering to his base and engaging in political theatre,” he added.

Another Orange County legislator, Kevindaryan Lujan,  said that Neuhaus has “repeatedly used asylum seekers as political pawns instead of treating them with dignity and as human beings.

“From creating fake state of emergencies that were rejected in federal court, to promoting false news stories that pinned veterans against asylum seekers,” he added.

City of Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey said he hoped “our County Executive and elected officials use the same meticulous effort to achieve a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers from coming to Orange County in petitioning our state and federal elected officials to create a comprehensive immigration reform law.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced the creation of a faith-based shelter programme,  a new, two-year partnership with New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS) that will allow up to 50 houses of worship or faith-based spaces to offer overnight shelter for up to 19 single adult men at each location.

He said faith-based partnerships have played “a critical role in the city’s response to the asylum seeker humanitarian crisis,” stating that, “at full scale, this program will host nearly 1,000 asylum seekers, with potential for further expansion.

“No matter what faith you practise, caring for those in need is part of every spiritual tradition,” said Mayor Adams, adding “New York City is the city of immigrants, as attested by the words of Emma Lazarus engraved on the inner pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.

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