New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently terminated most of his lawsuits against New York counties for their immigration emergency directives, which are intended to prevent the city from moving migrants to their communities.
An unprecedented migrant surge in New York City — with over 100,000 arrivals since the spring of 2022 — has strained the city’s resources and spurred Democratic infighting. Adams had hoped that the rest of New York state would share the burden by taking on some of the migrants.
But New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has adamantly rejected Adam’s proposal, arguing that the city’s “right-to-shelter” mandate “does not apply to the state’s other 57 counties, which is one of the reasons we cannot and will not force other parts of our state to shelter migrants.”
Out of the 31 lawsuits the mayor had filed against various county governments, 17 have been dropped, as confirmed by New York City Hall. Adams’ decision to drop them came in the wake of a judicial ruling that directed that the city would need to fight each legal battle in the respective county’s court, making it logistically challenging for the city’s legal representatives.
New York’s Warren County Attorney Larry Elmen described the decision as “a strong result for the power and authority of each individual county in the state of New York.”
With 10 other lawsuits dismissed after judges found no active emergency decrees in the counties to keep out migrants, only four of the mayor’s original 31 lawsuits remain. All four counties in question have sued the city back.
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