A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday barring two upstate counties from enforcing emergency orders aimed at blocking migrants from relocating there from New York City.
Judge Nelson Roman of the Southern District of New York sided with the four migrant plaintiffs in a decision released Tuesday that the executive orders issued by both Rockland and Orange counties violated their US Constitution’s Due Process and 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clauses.
The four migrant plaintiffs, Sidi Mouhamed Deide, Adama Sy, Abdallahi Salem, and Mouhamed Said Maloum Din, argue both counties’ orders are “intentionally discriminatory because they expressly classify persons based on national origin and alienage, and race, therefore violating their equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment,” according to the decision.
“Plaintiffs argue that the EOs implicate their fundamental right to move freely within New York, as protected under the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause, by banning transport and housing of migrants within Rockland and Orange Counties,” wrote Roman in his 51-page ruling.
“While it does not bar all travel or residency in the County for migrants or asylum seekers, it is clear that the Rockland County EO does impede travel to the county for the migrants and asylum seekers,” he added.
Mayor Eric Adams announced last month that the Big Apple will begin a new migrant bussing operation to upstate counties, billing it as a solution to combat the city’s shrinking shelter space.
The move triggered outrage in Rockland and Orange counties, as both were slated to be the recipients of the first migrant groups.
Rockland was granted a temporary restraining order against Adams’ plan in state Supreme Court after arguing local zoning laws bar hotels from operating as shelters.
Orange received a similar TRO in the days following, but not before several dozen migrants were transported to the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh.
The county is due back in state court on June 21.
“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,” said Amy Belsher, director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, who is representing the plaintiffs.
“Instead of playing politics with the lives of some of the most vulnerable, our state must uphold its legacy of being a beacon of refuge and new beginnings.”
Roman also wrote that his decision does not interfere with temporary restraining orders previously issued in state Supreme Court that bar migrants from being housed in both Orange and Rockland County hotels based on violations of local zoning laws.
“[T]he Court’s decision herein does not mean to interfere with the temporary restraining orders that are in effect and that were issued in state court proceedings, described above, concerning the interpretation and applicability of state and local laws,” he wrote.
GOP Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus’ spokesman Justin Rodriguez said in a statement that the county “disagrees” with the decision.
“However, the important result of that ruling is that nothing really changes as a practical matter at the present time. The federal court made very clear that it was not disturbing the temporary restraining order that the County obtained against the City of New York preventing the City from sending its homeless to Orange County hotels,” he told The Post.
“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. The County’s temporary restraining order against the City will remain in effect at least until June 21st when the State Supreme Court will issue a ruling on the continuing nature of the restraining order,” he added.
There are currently around 180 migrants being housed in Orange County, Rodriguez told The Post.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day, also a Republican, said he plans on appealing the decision.
“My administration is considering all legal options including an appeal of the decision,” he said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
