FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2023

Contact: Beth Cefalu, Director of Strategic Communications(845) 638-5645

Rockland Declares State of Emergency

New City, NY – Rockland County Executive Ed Day has declared a State of Emergency in response to the City of New York planning on housing about 340 adult males in Armoni Inn and Suites in Orangeburg for four months followed by attempted integration into the County. The County informed New York City Mayor Eric Adams yesterday that Rockland would not allow this plan to stand and has enacted this State of Emergency in direct response.

“The City declared itself a Sanctuary City in December of 2016 committing itself to supporting undocumented individuals while this County has not for the simple fact that we are one tenth the population of New York City and incapable of receiving and sustaining the volume of undocumented migrants Mayor Eric Adams intends to send over,” said County Executive Ed Day. “This County already has a housing crisis due to the lack thereof and lack of affordable housing options. This crisis is so extreme that Rockland has been unprecedently deputized by the State of New York to take over Building and Fire Code enforcement in the Village of Spring Valley. Sending busloads of people to this County that does not have the infrastructure to care for them will only compound that issue tenfold while straining support systems that are already at a breaking point.”

Due to the County of Rockland already struggling with the natural and organic migration of people into the County, including school districts rapidly gaining population and stressing services, this administration is enacting a local State of Emergency effective May 6, 2023, and remain in effect for 30 days at which time it may be extended. This State of Emergency prohibits other municipalities from bringing and housing people in the County and prohibits hotels and motels from housing immigrants without a license and requires any municipalities that might bring migrating or asylum-seeking people into Rockland County to ensure they will be fully cared for and paid for.

The specific License requirements are listed in the attached SOE – Sustainable Migration Protocol.

In March the County of Rockland publicized the strain to schools, food pantries, housing, and social services already being endured due to an increasing number of undocumented individuals resettling in Rockland.

While city officials allege they will provide some short-term funding and services to these individuals, no realistic plans have been communicated as to who will house, feed, and support these individuals in the long-term.

“Mayor Eric Adams is criticizing Congress for their failure to establish a strategy for each migrant before they enter into the country, ensuring this crisis is dealt with in a coordinated manner, and then does the exact opposite – shipping new arrivals to other municipalities that do not have the infrastructure to support them,” said County Executive Day. “As I said yesterday, it’s the same as tossing people into the middle of the ocean with nowhere to swim.”

“Our current system is not built to support large influxes of population seekers,” said DSS Commissioner Joan Silvestri. “Social Services funding is also not applicable to undocumented individuals, so we have no financial support to help those without a legal status.”

“Congress and the President need to wake up and do what needs to be done by fixing our broken immigration system once and for all,” concluded County Executive Day. “This is not about being anti-immigration but as it stands the system is incentivizing illegal immigration which does nothing to support our infrastructure; rather it is just draining taxpayer resources from the families already here and struggling including homeless, disabled, seniors, low-income, and other vulnerable populations.”

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