Say that official actions ‘reek of discrimination’
After being targeted by county executives in the Hudson Valley for renting rooms to asylum-seekers from New York City, owners have responded with a federal lawsuit.
Hotel owners in Dutchess, Orange and Rockland counties filed a federal lawsuit on May 22 in White Plains, arguing that executive orders banning migrants from hotels in more than two dozen counties and towns violate their constitutional rights to enter into contracts and are preempted by federal law.
The hotels also say the orders disregard their property and due-process rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 5th and 14th amendments.
The plaintiffs include the owner of a Red Roof Inn and Holiday Inn on Route 9 in the Town of Poughkeepsie and the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham in the Town of Newburgh. New York City last month transported 86 asylum-seekers to the Red Roof Inn and 186 to Crossroads and Ramada.
A third plaintiff is the owner of Armoni Inn & Suites in Rockland County. The county refused to renew its residence permit, which had expired, as the hotel prepared to receive asylum-seekers. Police monitor the hotel around the clock, according to the lawsuit.
The hotels say that the executive orders “unlawfully, impermissibly and unconstitutionally” prohibit them from “fulfilling their agreements to transport and offer temporary lodging in public accommodations.”
They also accuse county and town officials of “catering to xenophobic and political interests” and taking actions that “reek of discrimination.” Ed Day, the Republican executive of Rockland County, claimed without evidence that the newly arrived immigrants include child rapists, gang members and other criminals.
Dutchess and the other municipalities, according to the hotels, are sending a simple and illegal message: “If you provide hotel rooms to asylum refugees, [the] defendants will prevent performance of your agreements and destroy your businesses, all in flagrant violation of your constitutional rights.”
After Dutchess sued the owner of the Red Roof and Holiday Inn, a state judge on May 23 issued a temporary restraining order against New York City to prevent it from busing any more asylum-seekers into the county. It also ordered the hotel to provide the county with the names of the men sheltering at the Red Roof Inn.
The judge’s ruling allows Dutchess to inspect the Red Roof and Holiday Inn. The order is effective until June 20 while the judge weighs Dutchess’ request for a permanent injunction.
When Dutchess filed its lawsuit on May 19, William F.X. O’Neil, its Republican executive, declared a state of emergency, citing an “imminent peril to the public health and safety.” He threatened to sue hotels, motels and short-term lodging businesses whose property is used for “an emergency shelter, homeless shelter or long-term overnight dormitory.”
At a news conference on May 23 outside Fishkill Town Hall, O’Neil castigated the city, New York State and the federal government; he earlier issued a statement calling the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden “incompetent and ineffective.”
“The worst will be if these asylum-seeking migrants end up staying in Dutchess County, and the government that is now financing them pulls financing, and they have to find they have to fend for themselves,” said O’Neil. He was joined at the news conference by Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne, a Republican, and Fishkill Supervisor Ozzy Albra, a Democrat.
“We are not prepared for the housing needs that they have,” O’Neil said.
Orange and Rockland counties have also filed lawsuits; Orange won a temporary restraining order against the Crossroads and Ramada. But, as with the Red Roof Inn, the judge allowed the migrants at the hotels to stay.
