Upstate New York officials are calling for aid to help provide services for migrants sheltering in upstate hotels who will soon be relocated.
Time is up for asylum-seekers who were bussed upstate a year and a half ago. They've been housed at hotels and motels in Colonie, Albany, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie.
County Executive Dan McCoy says Albany, one the few upstate counties that took migrants in, accepted around 1,300. Over time, that number has dwindled down to 300.
"The nonprofits have been really doing a great job, and we've been working with them," McCoy said. "But again, that means more staff, more food on their shelves, more clothing on their shelves, more trying to figure out housing, legal advice. And I could go on and on and on, the stuff they've done, counseling, adjustment for kids into schools, interpreters, helping with paperwork, all the stuff DocGo was getting paid for it. And if you remember, early on, we had the issues with DocGo, we had all the issues going on, and we figured it out."
McCoy says in June he became aware of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' plan to pull the migrants back to the Big Apple once the city's contract with DocGo runs out at year's end.
Bryan MacCormack with the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement and several elected officials joined non-profit organizations and faith leaders Monday outside Governor Kathy Hochul’s office in the State Capitol, appealing to Hochul to intervene.
"Many of them have work authorization and gainful employment in the area," said MacCormack. "Their children are going to school, and they also are in the process of immigration proceedings with representation in the area and their court is in the area, and so it is extremely detrimental to their lives and the overall resettlement effort to once again uproot them. And for that reason, we are calling on Governor Hochul to step in in the 11th hour and provide the needed resources to keep these individuals sheltered, especially during Code Blue months and for us to continue our successful resettlement efforts."
MacCormack says the non-profits are "not going to settle until there is a just resolution."
McCoy says many of the newcomers have assimilated.
"What happened with a lot of these families, they got their working papers. They got jobs. We got them embedded in the community. They have housing, you know. They did everything to they had to do to stay here in area. And a lot of these kids are in our school system now, and they have adjusted here to the area, and filled jobs that stayed open and they [local businesses] couldn't have filled," said McCoy.
MacCormack says as of Wednesday Albany's Ramada Inn has been "cleared out" of migrant guests, while 195 people remain at the Holiday Inn in Albany.
"It has been an extremely frustrating process when it comes to communication. The governor's office is not clearly communicating with state elected officials or local elected officials, and we just continue to hear that they are working on something. And clearly they are not understanding the urgency of the moment, and whatever they're working on has had zero impact on the residents of the Ramada, and we are calling on them to continue to engage in proactive solutions and actions to prevent the mass evictions at the Holiday Inn," MacCormack said.
Governor Hochul's office has not responded to a request for comment.
