Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams filed a lawsuit against 30 counties in upstate New York for refusing to accept illegal immigrants currently housed across the Big Apple.
“Since this crisis began, New York City has — virtually on its own — stepped up to provide shelter, food, clothing, and other services to asylum seekers arriving in our city,” Adams said in a press statement. “We are doing our part and will continue to do our part, but we need every locality across the state to do their part as well.”
While some counties in upstate New York have been willing to help Adams, others have balked for three key reasons: they lack the infrastructure to provide the services needed to accommodate the migrants, they were not consulted by Adams’ office in advance of his efforts to forcibly relocate the migrants, and they did not support Adams’ plan to stick the migrants in hotels and motels across their regions – albeit with the city promising to pay for their housing.
Adams doesn’t accept the concerns raised by the counties and insisted that his “lawsuit aims to put an end to this xenophobic bigotry and ensure our state acts as one as we work together to manage this humanitarian crisis fairly and humanely, as we have done from the beginning and as we will continue to do.”
Sticking hundreds of undocumented people into hotels and motels in areas that are predominantly suburban and rural is a dumb idea. Very few of the upstate New York counties have a mass transit system, so the migrants would mostly be stuck at their lodgings or be forced to walk miles in unfamiliar areas to purchase grocery items or other goods. And that doesn’t even address the question of educating the children who were brought into this country illegally – I am reminded of Chicago parents who loudly protested why migrant children can be escorted into schools without proof of vaccination or residency while American children need to provide considerable documentation on their well-being and permanent address.
And in the event that the migrants are able to be processed and obtain the necessary paperwork to remain in this country, where are they going to live? The New York Farm Bureau has already staked a claim to these people, viewing them as a source of cheap labor for the agricultural industry, but there is a housing shortage in upstate New York and the Farm Bureau hasn’t offered any ideas on how to accommodate their desired workforce.
Also, given the problem that some New York City hotels have faced by having these migrants on the premises – there are too many videos showing migrant-fueled vandalism and criminal activity within these establishments – I cannot see why the owners of the upstate hotels and motels would risk having similar chaos to their properties.
Instead of taking the upstate counties to court, Adams needs to put the responsibility for the new influx on where it belongs. He has already been vocal about it – in April, he declared that the “national government has turned its back on New York City. Every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis. This is in the lap of the president of the United States. The president of the United States can give us the ability to allow people to work. This is in the lap of the executive branch of the United States of America.”
Adams needs to do more than talk – whether it requires a lawsuit against the Biden administration or forcing the New York Congressional delegation to do their jobs, the federal government needs to step in and address this crisis. And speaking of Biden, where is he on this issue? When was the last time he addressed the matter?
Instead, Adams’ administration is grasping at straws. Last month, the New York Times detailed how city officials toyed with plans to house the migrants tent cities in the parking lots of Citi Field and Aqueduct Racetrack. The city reached out to the Real Estate Board of New York to see if empty office space could be repurposed as housing shelter – so far, there are no takers.
But those ideas create more problems than solutions. Hotel and office property owners should not be pressured into joining this mess. The real estate industry is not responsible for the illegal immigrant crisis and should not be expected to take responsibility for a dilemma that it did not create.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Previous Phil Hall Op-Ed columns included:
Washington Needs an Infusion of Ayn Rand: https://wrenews.com/a-phil-hall-op-ed-washington-needs-an-infusion-of-ayn-rand/
Disputing Gary Vee: https://wrenews.com/a-phil-hall-op-ed-disputing-gary-vee/
The Disney Real Estate Dead Pool: https://wrenews.com/a-phil-hall-op-ed-the-disney-real-estate-dead-pool/
Living in ProPublica’s Glass House: https://wrenews.com/a-phil-hall-op-ed-living-in-propublicas-glass-house/
The Disastrous Silence on Urban Crime: https://wrenews.com/a-phil-hall-op-ed-the-disastrous-silence-on-urban-crime/
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