A federal district court judge on Tuesday granted a motion barring two New York counties from executing orders aimed at stopping New York City from sending migrants and asylum seekers to their communities for shelter.
Orange and Rockland counties issued emergency declarations last month in response to New York City Mayor Eric Adams' plan to bus willing migrants to hotels within their communities on a temporary basis as his city struggles with housing an influx of migrants.
Days later, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of several migrants, saying the counties' orders were unlawful.
In his opinion Tuesday, New York Judge Nelson Roman granted the civil rights organization's request for a preliminary injunction, holding that it showed it was likely to succeed on multiple criteria of its federal claims, including violations of due process and equal protection clauses under the US Constitution.
The judge noted that "the fear that 'thousands' of migrants/asylum seekers" would inundate Rockland and Orange counties "is speculative as the record shows that New York City's plan includes relocation of about 300 people to the two counties."
New York City officials have repeatedly stressed that they were scrambling to house a crush of migrant arrivals -- some of them bused to New York by Republican governors and local officials from Southern states.
Since last spring, New York City has processed more than 65,000 migrants and at least 35,000 remained in the city's care as of mid-May, city officials previously said.
Adams announced in early May that the city would temporarily send willing migrants to neighboring New York communities ahead of a surge of migrants that was expected with the expiration of Title 42 -- the Trump-era policy enacted early in the Covid-19 pandemic that allowed authorities to quickly expel migrants at US land borders.
"Today's decision sends a loud and clear message not only to Rockland and Orange Counties, but to all of the counties who have issued these discriminatory executive orders: the Constitution does not allow you to build walls around your county limits," NYCLU Director of Immigrants' Rights Litigation Amy Belsher said in a statement.
The court's decision does not interfere with temporary restraining orders that were issued in state courts as they examine whether New York City's program is unlawful, the judge's opinion says.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day said his team is "considering all legal options including an appeal of the decision," and added that the federal court's order "has no impact on the existing Temporary Restraining Orders issued by the State court judges."
Day noted that his order "never barred anyone from coming to the county."
"The only thing this County's order was barring was Mayor Eric Adams from overstepping his authority by luring people out of New York City with predatory marketing and advertising and turning hotels in Rockland into city-run shelters with no regard for law, zoning, or our capacity on hand," Day said.
Orange County spokesperson Justin Rodriguez told CNN that Tuesday's ruling doesn't change anything at the present time.
"The court noted that the County's allegations that the City's program of sending its homeless to Orange County is a matter of State law that must be resolved in State court," Rodriguez said.
He added that Orange County's temporary restraining order against New York City remains in effect until at least June 21, at which time "the State Supreme Court will issue a ruling on the continuing nature of the restraining order."
Mayor Adams' press secretary Fabien Levy told CNN that many elected officials, community groups, and faith-based organizations have been "overwhelmingly supportive and enthusiastic" about welcoming migrants into their cities and towns, but "the dangerous executive orders we've seen from some counties simply show the lack of leadership we're seeing across the state."
"Today's order against Rockland and Orange counties shows that a county cannot just wall itself off from the rest of the state at-will while simultaneously asking for support in other circumstances," Levy said.
