Judge blocks NYC Mayor Adams from busing migrants upstate

A New York judge temporarily barred New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams from busing migrants to a neighboring municipality as the city struggles to cope with the influx of new arrivals.

The city sent the first batch of asylum seekers to the suburbs earlier in May, a move that has drawn vehement opposition from the Republican leadership of upstate counties.

New York Supreme Court Judge Sandra Sciortino's Tuesday order did not force the removal of migrants who have already arrived at select Orange County hotels, but forbade the city from sending any additional migrants. The Hill reported. Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus and county Department of Social Services Commissioner Darcie Miller had brought the case.

"The city is a self-proclaimed sanctuary city; Orange County is not," Neuhaus said after the ruling. "We should not have to bear the burden of the immigration crisis that the Federal government and Mayor Adams created, and I will continue to fight for Orange County’s residents in regard to this important manner."

Under the order, the city must continue to pay the expenses of the existing migrants and the county may inspect the hotels housing them, should they provide reasonable notice and not interfere with services at the sites.

A sanctuary city, New York has struggled to contend with the mass arrival of asylum seekers, a phenomenon exacerbated in part by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott deliberately transporting migrants to sanctuary cities in a bid to highlight the Biden administration's lax approach to border enforcement.

The city estimates that it has managed to accommodate more than 65,000 migrants thus far.

Adams, last week, signed an emergency order suspending the city's right-to-shelter rule, CBS reported. He has further sought aid from Albany and Washington in address the influx.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.