Mount Pleasant issues emergency order over migrants, but NYC isn't sending any

Acting on erroneous information Friday, Mount Pleasant Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi issued an emergency order prohibiting New York City from housing migrants at a school within the town.

But New York City is not sending asylum seekers to Mount Pleasant, and the town's own statement acknowledged Fulgenzi was acting on information received "not through direct communication."

Fulgenzi did not immediately respond to repeated requests for comment.

For weeks, municipal and county executives have railed against the transfer of hundreds of asylum seekers from New York City to various parts of the Hudson Valley. Officials laid the blame squarely at the feet of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has allowed certain migrants, primarily single adult men and families, to seek temporary shelter at hotels outside the city. Social services would continue to be provided by Adams.

New York City's social safety net has been overwhelmed in recent weeks by repeated arrivals of asylum seekers, many of whom were bused to the city by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

In Fulgenzi's emergency declaration, he decried New York City's temporary relocation program and criticized the city for "shirking its housing responsibility and sending asylum seekers to the neighboring" areas.

"The town, with a tiny fraction of the population and resources of New York City, has no ability to receive and sustain an influx of migrant persons and asylum seekers," he wrote. "There is no reason to believe that these migrant persons or asylum seekers will leave such jurisdictions after New York City ceases to pay for the housing and any services they are presently receiving from New York City."

Fulgenzi specifically said his order was spurred by "New York City's program to rapidly increase the number of migrants outside of New York City" and that the city was sending migrants to the Pleasantville Cottage School.

School only takes minors

However, Fulgenzi's description of events is not what is happening in Mount Pleasant. Unlike with other recent cases in Yonkers, Rockland County and elsewhere, New York City is not sending asylum seekers to Mount Pleasant.

Any individuals who might be staying temporarily at the Pleasantville Cottage School, a residential program run by JCCA, a nonprofit, were not sent by Adams.

"JCCA cares for young people, and our campus is not licensed to house families or single adults," said Anna Gold, a spokesperson for JCCA. "We have no plans to house migrants relocated by Mayor Adams from New York City."

JCCA is currently under contract with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement as part of that agency's Unaccompanied Alien Children program. This program is unrelated to the current migrant situation.

As part of this contract, JCCA provides social services to unaccompanied migrant children in The Bronx, according to federal award data. Unaccompanied children from Central America have repeatedly been resettled or temporarily housed by the federal government in New York, including during the Trump administration.

Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for Adams, confirmed that the city had no role in any placements at the Pleasantville Cottage School.

The fervor over the situation in Mount Pleasant, despite its uncertain origins, spread quickly. Soon after Fulgenzi issued his order, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-Pearl River) released a statement further blaming New York City, saying that the city's “decision to be a sanctuary city should not result in municipalities in my district bearing the brunt of their short-sighted policy or turning already tense locations into even tenser ones.”

Suburban counties, towns react

Panic over the placement of asylum seekers and migrants has rippled across New York for three weeks, ever since Rockland County officials announced with alarm that New York City planned to place up to 340 migrants in an Orangetown hotel.

It turned out the city had arranged with hotels outside its borders to take in a share of its growing population of asylum seekers. But it met a wall of resistance: orders by county executives to prohibit the boarding of migrants, followed a rush of lawsuits.

So far, a few hundred asylum seekers are staying in four hotels in Orange, Dutchess and Westchester counties as court cases play out. Temporary court orders have limited the numbers to 186 in Orange and 86 in Dutchess. At least 49 migrant families – mothers with small children – are staying at a hotel in Westchester, which has posed no objections.

Many other counties across New York, hoping to head off any migrant placements, have followed the lead of Rockland and Orange county executives by adopting preemptive bans. By Thursday, that total had grown to 36 of the 57 counties outside New York City, according to Rockland County Executive Ed Day.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mount Pleasant NY issues emergency order but NYC not sending migrants