Both the Town of Newburgh and the County of Orange have filed lawsuits in an attempt to prevent the lodging of asylum seekers.

Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus on Friday filed two lawsuits on behalf of the County to stop the City of New York from sending its homeless migrants and/or asylum seekers to the County.

The first lawsuit is against both the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham, both located in the Town of Newburgh. This lawsuit is to stop these hotels from accepting New York City’s homeless migrants and/or asylum seekers in violation of the Order and Declaration of Emergency issued by Neuhaus earlier this week. 

The second lawsuit against New York City and Mayor Eric Adams is to stop the City from establishing unlicensed and unregulated homeless shelters in Orange County for these migrants and/or asylum seekers. Under State Law, the city is prohibited from setting up homeless shelters outside of the five boroughs in the manner it did this week.

Earlier this week, both the State and City assured the Town of Newburgh and Orange County that no buses with asylum seekers would be here until further notice, according to Neuhaus.. However, a day later, asylum seekers arrived at the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh.

“Unlike Rockland County, which had a hotel that wasn’t in compliance with existing permitting requirements, the hotels in Orange County had valid permits to exist as short-term rentals. Accordingly, the time to sue could not effectively start until the individual's Mayor Eric Adams sent here arrived, and these permitted short-term rental units were converted into long-term homeless housing shelters, which is not legal,” explained Orange County Attorney Rick Golden.

The Town of Newburgh, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit on May 12, in Orange County Supreme Court against the owner of the Crossroads Hotel, which is currently housing approximately 50 asylum seekers who arrived on Thursday.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction on the conversion of the hotel to long-term occupancy at the request of New York City, with on-site food, counseling, security, and other services to be provided by the City of New York. 

According to the town lawsuit, The Crossroads Hotel has not obtained the necessary variances, approvals, and permits from the Town of Newburgh for the publicized conversion to a use that does not comply with the Town’s Zoning Code.