NYC drops lawsuits against Suffolk County, Riverhead Town over relocation of migrants

New York City has dropped its litigation against Suffolk County, Riverhead Town and other jurisdictions statewide for blocking the relocation of homeless foreign migrants from the city to those places, according to court filings.

The litigation, which targeted 31 municipalities statewide with similar anti-relocation policies, accused the jurisdictions of seeking to "wall off their borders" to keep out any of the tens of thousands of migrants who've arrived in the city from abroad. To ease the city's burden, the Adams administration has been trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to relocate some of the migrants throughout the state.

The case against Riverhead was dropped Wednesday; the one against Suffolk was dropped Aug. 30, according to the filings.

Jonah Allon, a spokesman for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, said Thursday that the city dropped the litigation because of a judge’s adverse ruling last month that the city would need to fight each municipality's ban in its respective county, rather than all in Manhattan.

Allon said the litigation has been dismissed or withdrawn against 27 jurisdictions; the cases against four counties that had proactively sued the city over the relocation policies, Dutchess, Orange, Onondaga and Rockland, are still pending.

The documents ending the litigation — which could technically be refiled — are signed by a city lawyer, assistant corporation counsel Doris F. Bernhardt. On Long Island, the filings were made in Suffolk County State Supreme Court.

In prepared remarks Thursday morning, Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said of migrant relocations: “Not only would this type of emergency housing be in violation of our codes, but in addition would limit hotel space during our busiest tourist season thereby threatening the existing local jobs and the economy our community depends on.”

New York City — which is under a unique-in-the-nation and decades-old mandate to provide room and board to whoever is in need — has promised to pay for the migrants’ living expenses when relocated. But the Adams administration has declined to say how long those payments would last and the breadth of the subsidies.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to force municipalities to accept the migrants, said last month that she would not do so. She said the city is the best place for migrants to find resources such as work, mass transit and language classes.

The city's suit against Riverhead, Suffolk and the other jurisdictions was initially filed in June.

The suit criticized the municipalities for trying "multiple methods to block New York City from arranging for even a small number of asylum-seekers to stay in private hotels within their jurisdictions — at the City's expense — amidst a major humanitarian crisis."

On Long Island, the policies at issue were put into place in the spring.

On May 26, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone issued an order forbidding Suffolk hotels, motels and shelters from contracting with New York City to accept migrants, absent county approval. A message sent Thursday to the county executive's spokeswomen wasn't immediately returned.

On May 16, Aguiar signed an order prohibiting motels and other facilities from accepting any such migrants.

The order has been renewed ever since, including Wednesday.

In June, the order was amended to remove references to asylum-seekers or migrants. The current version bars transient lodging facilities, such as campgrounds, hotels and motels, from accepting “any persons for long term/non-transient housing inconsistent with” permitted uses.

It also bars homeless shelters from displacing their current population to provide shelters “to other persons,” according to the order.

Riverhead Town attorney Erik Howard said Thursday that decision was made “so it was more broad and really captured the original intent, which was to make sure a hotel stays a hotel and isn’t used for any other long-term housing purposes.”

The city’s suit cited state laws, regulations and the U.S. Constitution in asking that the court suspend all emergency orders, declare them void and permanently end their enforcement.

In August, the city lost its attempt to centralize, in a Manhattan court, challenges to local bans on relocating migrants. A Manhattan judge ruled that the city must fight Long Island municipalities and dozens of others in each county’s court.

Nassau has not explicitly prohibited New York City from relocating its migrants into the county, but when asked about the prospect, County Executive Bruce Blakeman has repeatedly said that Nassau “is not a sanctuary county.”

Mayor Adams has said the city, which has opened over 200 sites to house migrants, is out of room to shelter the migrants — mostly from Latin America but also Africa and elsewhere — who have kept coming since last spring.

So far, as of Wednesday, about 113,000 migrants have arrived in the city since spring 2022, about half of whom are currently living in city-funded shelters, hotels or other such accommodations, and receive food, showers, laundry and health services.

The city is encouraging migrants to file for asylum. So far, about 3,800 applications have been filed, the administration said Wednesday. 

Newsday reported in June that most asylum-seekers are unlikely to be granted asylum, due to the high standard set out in U.S. law — persecution due to traits like race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. A migrant has a year from crossing into the country to file or generally forfeits the right.

The U.S. immigration courts are backlogged by years, and regardless of the outcome, an unknown number of the migrants are likely to remain in the nation illegally.

Even if the city's attempts to relocate migrants onto Long Island have been stymied, some are moving to the Island on their own, advocates told Newsday in May. 

The migrants have moved out to Bellport, Brentwood, Flanders, Hempstead, Mastic, Westbury and Wyandanch, among other communities, according to the advocates.