MID-HUDSON – Rockland County has won a victory in its efforts to block future asylum seekers from being sent from the City of New York to be housed locally.
Rockland was one of several Mid-Hudson counties sued by New York City seeking to have their cases all heard in Big Apple courts.
Orange County earlier was removed from that suit and had their legal arguments returned to State Supreme Court in Goshen.
Now, Rockland has won a similar battle. “I firmly believe a case that is about Rockland should be adjudicated and decided by judges elected by Rockland residents – which now thanks to this decision it will be,” said County Executive Ed Day.
He called the decision “a factually based common-sense decision by the judge which gives us a fair and equal chance to receive justice in court.” So, the issue of whether additional migrants can be sent to Rockland will be heard by the State Supreme Court in New City.
Meanwhile, while Putnam County has had no migrants housed there, that county was also in the blanket lawsuit filed in New York City. That county has now been dismissed from the city’s lawsuit.
“This lawsuit was merely another dishonest attempt by the city to foist its responsibilities on other local governments,” said County Executive Kevin Byrne. “From the beginning we were confident in our actions and aggressively defended them in the public and in the courts.”
