Seven Western New York counties have declared states of emergency to block New York City from sending migrants and asylum-seekers to local hotels over the past few weeks.
The exception: Erie County.
On Saturday, County Executive Mark Poloncarz said he will not be issuing any order that would "prohibit the housing of legal asylum-seekers in our community."
"Not only is such an order illegal under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is morally repugnant," Poloncarz said in a statement he posted to Twitter.
New York City has had more than 60,000 migrants arriving within the past year, forcing city officials to look for housing options outside the city, including busing people to hotels in neighboring Rockland and Orange counties.
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On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said while visiting Buffalo that the state is considering all options, including using SUNY campuses as potential sites, to house the ongoing surge of migrants and asylum-seekers in New York City.
"No decisions have been made, but I wanted to find out what's available at everything from DOT facilities to our DEC offices to literally every place we have space, because in the City of New York, they are bursting at the seams," Hochul said Friday. "They started having to put them in school gymnasiums ... And there's a lot of anxiety around this, but to me, we have a large state. We need to do it in a right way, a way that we work closely with the local officials."
Poloncarz, in his statement Saturday, pointed to Buffalo and Erie County's history of welcoming immigrants and refugees. "During the past decade we have successfully assimilated thousands of immigrants into our community, many refugees from despotic lands. This is one reason for the great rebirth of many previously downtrodden neighborhoods in Buffalo," he said.
In 2021, Census data showed that Buffalo's population grew for the first time in 70 years, largely driven by immigrants and resettled refugees moving to the city.
The county executive wrote that everyone except Native Americans are immigrants, "some of who were forced to come through slavery." He referenced the May 14, 2022, massacre at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue, saying the killer was "allegedly radicalized because of what he read on social media."
"Words matter," Poloncarz said. "The acts of leaders matter."
He urged those to follow the teachings of the Bible, citing chapter 22, verse 39 of the Book of Matthew: "Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself."
Last week, a spokesman for Poloncarz said the Erie County Attorney’s Office was monitoring ongoing litigation over executive orders in several counties.
Erie County’s emergency housing options are “at or above capacity” and the county would not be able to shelter large numbers of homeless immigrants, spokesman Peter Anderson said.
But he added, “at this time we are unaware of even a single asylum-seeker arriving here in Erie County from New York City, and there is no ‘emergency’ to respond to.”
The issue cuts along political lines.
Poloncarz and the majority leadership of the Erie County Legislature are, like Hochul, Democrats. Republicans run the counties that have issued orders.
Niagara County on Thursday issued an emergency order that prohibits hotel operators from contracting with government entities outside of the county to house or transport migrants or asylum-seekers without the approval of the county Legislature. Chautauqua and Wyoming counties also issued similar orders on Thursday, followed by Allegany County on Friday. Orleans, Genesee and Cattaraugus counties issued their orders on Wednesday.
On Friday, Lindsay Lorigo, the endorsed Conservative candidate running against Elma Councilman James Malczewski for Erie County Legislature District 10, called on the county Legislature and Poloncarz to issue "an immediate state of emergency to curb the influx of illegal immigrations from New York City."
"Our resources are finite, and our security is at risk," said Lorigo in the statement.