Woman at house Clarkstown officials say is overcrowded disputes that allegation

NEW CITY - She said she was a 40-year-old mother of two from Ecuador, a migrant who was put on plane to New York after entering the U.S. and then brought to a house in Rockland County three weeks ago.

No, there weren't 31 people living in the house, the woman told reporters for the Journal News/lohud and USA Today Network on Tuesday. There were 10, including her. Others that inspectors found in a search on Friday were temporary guests, awaiting transfers to other homes in Rockland, she said.

The woman, who spoke in Spanish and declined to give her name, answered questions through her front window shortly after a TV news crew drove off. In the span of a few days, the three-bedroom house on New Hempstead Road had been the subject of a raid, a fiery news conference, and now a court action seeking to evict her and the other occupants.

Clarkstown officials allege the home was overcrowded with at least 31 people and rife with code violations, putting children and adults in difficult and potentially dangerous living conditions.

On Monday, those claims were pulled into the mosh pit of immigration politics, a focal point far from the border.

At a news conference with Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann, Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Rep. Mike Lawler, both Republicans, linked the packed house to Rockland's months-long clash with New York City over housing of asylum seekers, suggesting Mayor Eric Adams was somehow to blame for migrants being placed in that home.

They cited no evidence, and an Adams spokesman dismissed the accusation as "lies."

Crowded house: Clarkstown says 31 migrants in 1 home; without proof, Day and Lawler point to NYC mayor

The woman's account on Tuesday didn't fully explain how a group of Ecuador natives wound up in a suburban home in the Rockland County seat, about two miles up the road from Day's office. But her story gave no indication that the Adams administration had anything to do with it.

How did they get here?

She said that after crossing into Texas with her family, they were directed to a Catholic aid agency that offered to fly her to New York City and paid for her flight.

"We were received by immigration and they asked, 'Do you have a place to go? Do you have money for a flight?" she recalled. "We said no. Then they said, 'We will help with the flight so you can go.'"

She said her family stayed one night in the city before being driven to the New City house, which was empty when they arrived.

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The person who found the house and took them there was a former neighbor from Ecuador who knew the house's owner, she said. The other nine people now living with her in the house - five adults and four children - were all from Ecuador and had all traveled to New York on the same flight.

They included her husband and their two children, ages 15 and 17, who are enrolled in East Ramapo School District, she said.

Asked why the house was so crowded when inspectors came, she said, "those people just got here recently, and other people came to bring them to another place. "

A couple who live next door and declined to give their names said the migrants' house - occupied for decades by the same family until it was sold last year - had its first tenants several months ago: what seemed to be a family with kids playing outside. Then the number of children and the amount of garbage left outside gradually began to grow.

On Friday, the day of the raid, a van pulled up to the house and let out 10 to 12 people, the husband said.

What's the back story in Rockland?

The conflict between New York City and Rockland officials erupted in May, when Adams and his aides revealed that the city planned to move asylum seekers at an Orangeburg hotel to relieve crowding in its shelters. The city had taken in steady busloads of asylum seekers from the U.S.-Mexico border that have now surpassed 110,000 since the spring of 2022.

Clash erupts: Plan to house asylum seekers at Rockland hotel may be blocked by county executive's order

Rockland sued and won a temporary court order blocking the placements, one of a string of ongoing court cases with multiple counties over the planned transfer of asylum seekers to hotels around the state. The city is now housing about 2,200 migrants in 14 hotels in seven counties.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Alexandra Rivera covers breaking and trending news for The Journal News/lohud.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New City NY migrant house not overcrowded, says occupant of home