New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office told News 12 that migrant families with children will arrive Sunday at the Ramada Inn on Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers.
News 12 was told by Adams’ staff that 100 rooms were booked there.
Yonkers City Councilman Anthony Merante says he was able to confirm this upcoming stay with management at the hotel. “There were supposed to be 50 rooms that they’re renting...it was going to be on a month to month basis,” he said.
Westchester County says between 50-100 migrants with children are expected to arrive – not only adult males like what was proposed for Orange County.
“Are they going to be staying in their hotel rooms all day? No, they’re going to be out on the streets going around town. They don’t have cars…we know absolutely nothing,” said Merante.
Mayor Mike Spano says he
received virtually no information from the New York City mayor’s office. Westchester County Executive George Latimer says he doesn’t know if Adams has plans to bring migrants to any of the other cities in Westchester because they’re speaking directly to the hotels. “The city of New York has been making the placement calls to the various hotels and are trying to identity which property is willing to take on what kind volume and duration of time,” he said.
Adams has consistently maintained that this will all be paid for by New York City, but Latimer says that’s only to an extent. “If the thinking is, ‘we’re going to pay for their overnight accommodations and we’re going to pay for their meals’ – that isn’t the totality of the costs involved,” he said.
This situation will surely require county resources or services that could possibly include security, policing, transportation, and language services.
Latimer says the arrival of asylum seekers falls within the budget that the county has – they have funds allocated for these situations – but it is not unlimited.