NYC drops lawsuit against Town of Riverhead in battle over migrant relocation
The lawsuit claimed Riverhead was violating both state law and the U.S. Constitution by stopping the city from moving asylum seekers out east.
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New York City has dropped a lawsuit against the Town of Riverhead in its battle over relocating migrants.
The suit claimed Riverhead was violating both state law and the U.S. Constitution by stopping the city from moving asylum seekers out east.
Riverhead has orders restricting or barring hotels and shelters from housing migrants.
Town of Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar says it's what was best for the town.
"We need to protect our community from New York City's poor decisions and not appropriately addressing the city and federal humanitarian crisis," says Aguiar.
A spokesperson for City Hall issued a statement saying, "New York City has served over 110,000 asylum seekers and opened more than 200 emergency shelters since spring 2022. We have spent more than $2 billion to date, and, with approximately 60,000 asylum seekers still in our care, expect to spend $5 billion this fiscal year alone without substantial aid from our state and federal partners. In the absence of a national decompression strategy to address the flow of asylum seekers, New York City has been forced to undertake our own decompression strategy. We are grateful to the counties across the state who are welcoming migrants, but we have been clear since the start that this is an all-hands-on-deck moment for New York – and every community in the state must do their part to manage this crisis."
