Senator Rob Rolison Calls on Albany to Release Funding to Ease Immigration Crisis

Senator Rob Rolison (39^th District) today sent a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul urging her administration to fairly allocate $1 billion in state funding to municipalities such as the Town of Newburgh and others expected to begin receiving groups of asylum-seekers and migrants as early as this month. On May 5 New York City Mayor Eric Adams's office announced that hundreds of men would be relocated outside New York to Orangeburg, Rockland County and Town of Newburgh in Orange County for a period of several months. 

The $230 billion fiscal year 2023-2024 state budget approved a week ago on May 2 appropriated $1 billion for New York City to provide shelter and other services to its migrant community. Rolison's letter calls on the governor to apportion those funds adequately to the Upstate communities expected to share the impacts of housing, feeding, and serving the asylees and others.

"If state funding of at least $1 billion is to be obligated to pay for some or all of the costs associated with the asylees and migrants, then in my view it should be allocated more widely than just New York City, the only municipality mentioned by the budget," Rolison writes in his letter. "Communities such as Newburgh are too small to bear the costs of unforeseen changes to the three- to four-month timeline mentioned by the Adams administration, especially if, but not only if, there are significant delays to the work-permit waiting period, currently estimated at around 180 days per recipient."

Rolison continues: "I simply find it incredible that New York, the most resource-rich state in the country with a $230 billion budget, cannot provide adequate services like housing, healthcare, and employment training in its largest sanctuary city, instead sending individuals miles away from the help they need. Our immigration system is broken, and this latest episode furthers the disrepair."

A copy of Senator Rolison's letter is attached.