Amid NYC-Rockland standoff over asylum seekers, groups show support for immigrants

SPRING VALLEY - Rocklanders who have long worked supporting immigrants gathered Thursday in this village populated by new immigrants to push back against Rockland County Executive Ed Day's fight to stop New York City Mayor Eric Adams' plan to house single male asylum seekers in a local hotel.

"Asylum seekers have been vetted by the U.S. government," said Lillian Jimenez of the Spring Valley Collaborative, a network of 45 organizations that provide services to people in the densely populated village. She and others expressed concern about the use of stigmatizing language regarding the single males coming, including repeatedly saying they are undocumented when they have gone through a process before arriving in NYC.

Mara Marasigan, co-executive director of Proyecto Faro, which supports new immigrants, said Rockland County, with a population of 340,000, had a large immigration community. "They are here, they are living here, they are struggling here," Marasigan said. "And they are thriving here."

The increased "natural migration" among people with friends and family in Rockland is something Day has pointed to, as well. Day has said recent increases have burdened local nonprofits and the East Ramapo school district, as well as the county Department of Social Services, which reports a 35% increase in foster children.

Jimenez took issue with viewing the asylum seekers, who would be eligible for work permits at some point, as a burden. "Immigrants are the most resourceful people in the world," she said. "They have to be. They are fleeing terrorism."

Nonprofit leaders who facilitate working papers for asylum seekers have said it's a relatively direct process but can take at least six months. New York City officials have outlined plans to provide support for the men relocated to suburban counties for what's supposed to be four months.

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Marasigan said the agencies represented at the Thursday press conference and others were ready to provide "mutual aid."

"There's not scarcity here," she said. "There is an opportunity for course correction."

A short historical perspective was offered by Ariel Gold, executive director of the Fellowship for Reconciliation, the oldest interfaith organization in the U.S., which is based in Stony Point. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the decision by the U.S. and other countries in 1939 to deny entry to the St. Louis, a ship carrying 900 Jewish refugees, were shameful periods, she said. "We ask that we not repeat that."

How we got here

Rockland and Orange County officials said they were informed by Adams' office on May 5 that the city was placing up to 340 single male new immigrants in hotels in their municipalities.

The Adams administration has said the relocation is part of a plan to make room for a swell of immigrants expected to come to the city after Title 42, a COVID-era immigration ruling that limited access at the U.S. border, expires Thursday. The city has received some 61,000 new immigrants, including those sent by bus to NYC by the governor of Texas.

The Armoni Inn & Suites, off Route 303 in Orangeburg, and Crossroads Hotel in Orange Lake, in Newburgh, were contracted by NYC to take a portion of these asylum seekers.

Orangetown has obtained a temporary restraining order to stop Armoni's use, saying the hotel was in violation of its land-use permits. Another court issued another temporary restraining order Thursday preventing Adams from sending the asylum seekers to Rockland.

Meanwhile, Rockland County's Department of Health filed a court action stating that the hotel would be, in effect, operating as a homeless shelter and didn't have state permission for that use. The hotel's temporary residence permit, issued by the county health department, has also lapsed and the county has notified the hotel's owner that it will not issue a new one amid the standoff.

U.S. Reps. Pat Ryan, a Democrat and Mike Lawler, a Republican, jointly called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency for New York as Title 42 ends and immigration swells. The Hudson Valley congressional representatives want a New York State of Emergency so FEMA could help identify, mobilize and provide resources that could alleviate impacts of the anticipated immigrant surge in  New York.

Several speakers at Thursday's press conference in Spring Valley pointed to a larger issue: a broken immigration system through Democratic and Republican administrations in Washington.

"We should be working together - instead we have leaders choosing fear," said Emily Feiner, a member of Rockland United, which supports progressive political action.

Feiner added that she was standing in front of Spring Valley Village Hall on Thursday morning for another reason: as a social worker, she said, it was her duty to be there. "My professional ethos demands I stand up for marginalized people."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Immigrant relocation plan from NYC blocked by Rockland County