Adams’ upstate migrant suits fizzle

From: POLITICO New York Playbook - Monday Sep 18,2023 11:15 am

Sep 18, 2023

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Asylum seekers kick a soccer ball outside The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York

Asylum seekers kick a soccer ball outside a hotel in Newburgh, N.Y. New York City sued a host of upstate local governments in an effort to prevent them from refusing migrants, but had since dropped most of them. | Karsten Moran for POLITICO

Mayor Eric Adams’ office quietly ended legal challenges against most of the upstate county governments that were sued by New York City over their emergency orders meant to bar migrants.

City Hall confirmed to Playbook that 17 of the 31 cases against county governments were abandoned.

The legal challenges were dropped after a judge ruled New York City would have to litigate each case in the individual counties, a potential travel nightmare for the city’s counsel’s office.

“It’s an interesting decision and a strong result for the power and authority of each individual county in the state of New York,” Warren County Attorney Larry Elmen told county leaders there last week.

Meanwhile, 10 of the cases against upstate county governments were dismissed after it was determined the counties in question did not have current emergency orders to bar migrants.

Only four lawsuits remain in Rockland, Orange, Onondaga and Dutchess counties — all of which have also sued New York City over the disbursing of migrants to upstate and suburban communities.

“We are grateful to the counties across the state who are welcoming migrants, but we have been clear since the start that this is an all-hands-on-deck moment for New York — and every community in the state must do their part to manage this crisis,” a City Hall spokesperson told Playbook in a statement.

Adams announced the flurry of litigation in June after county governments approved emergency orders in response to the city sending migrants to hotels and motels outside of the city.

Adams has also called for a statewide “decompression strategy” that would lead to more migrants being taken out of New York City.

Any plan that keeps migrants contained to the city is a “failed plan,” Adams has said.

The mayor has also called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to override the local governments’ orders to allow for the motels and hotels to be used as shelter space for migrants

But the prospect of placing more migrants outside of the city is one Hochul has not embraced.

Hochul has insisted she does not want to force county governments to shelter migrants — a stance rooted in her opposition to applying the city’s right to shelter requirement statewide.

IT’S MONDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.

WHERE’S KATHY? Delivers remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan.

WHERE’S ERIC? Appearing on 93.1 FM Amor’s “La Bodega de La Mañana,” doing a fireside conversation at a global affairs summit, delivering remarks at a U.S.-Africa investor forum, speaking with New York City’s Theatre and Live Performance Industry Council, meeting with Sweden’s Prime Minister, meeting with the mayor of Seoul, talking climate with representatives of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, speaking at an event focused on the global zero waste movement, hosting a roundtable with Pakistani leaders, meeting with the president and first lady of Sierra Leone, speaking at an interfaith human rights foundation’s award ceremony — and, whew, lastly, attending a fashion nonprofit’s annual banquet

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “You have sold out our communities. We will see you in court.” — Republican City Council Member Joann Ariola, who is vowing to file an injunction to block the city and state from using Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to house migrants, a deal finalized Friday.

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ABOVE THE FOLD

Migrants sit in a queue on the sidewalk outside of The Roosevelt Hotel in New York.

A recent poll conducted by Hart Research Associates shows a majority of voters in upstate swing districts and on Long Island are in favor of granting work permits to migrants. | John Minchillo/AP Photo

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: A majority of swing district voters upstate and on Long Island support work permits for migrants, an issue that would resonate at the ballot box, according to a poll shared exclusively with Playbook.

Seventy-six percent of voters in four House districts upstate and 72 percent on Long Island back proposals allowing migrants in the city to find jobs and pay taxes, according to the poll commissioned by Tusk Philanthropies and conducted by Hart Research Associates.

If the Democratic candidate supports the plan and the GOP one opposes it, 54 percent of upstate voters say they’d back the Democrat and 34 percent say they’d back the Republican while 51 percent of Long Island voters would back the Democrat and 39 percent would back the Republican, the poll found.

“If Washington won’t do anything here, Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams should step up to the plate and issue their own work permits, knowing that New Yorkers have their backs,” Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Philanthropies, said in a statement.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, elected officials including Adams, Hochul and President Joe Biden got low marks for their handling of the migrant surge, consistent with last month’s Siena poll. — Emily Ngo

U.N. PLAYBOOK: The high-level week at the U.N. General Assembly kicks off Monday. Track all the news, analysis — and, of course, gossip — with our daily newsletter by Suzanne Lynch, who will be on the ground in Manhattan. Sign up to POLITICO’s U.N. Playbook here.

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WHAT CITY HALL IS READING

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief adviser to Mayor Eric Adam, gestures while giving remarks at a breakfast event in Harlem

Ingrid Martin-Lewis, chief adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, speaks at the African American Day Parade breakfast in Harlem. | Emily Ngo/POLITICO

ONLY IN PLAYBOOK: Adams’ chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, is sending a warning to any partners in government who try to make her boss the “fall guy” in the migrant crisis.

“Right now, we're in the fight of our lives with the federal government and the state because we’ve got to get that immigration situation under control,” Lewis-Martin said alongside Adams on Sunday at a Harlem breakfast attended by Playbook. “And they think they’re going to make him the fall guy. Not on my dime. We’re not having it. We are not having it.”

Short of scapegoating Adams, an attorney for Hochul and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have used official correspondence to criticize City Hall’s management of the migrant crisis.

The mayor made clear he appreciates the loyalty of his longtime confidante.

Adams presented Lewis-Martin with an award at the annual African American Day Parade breakfast, MC’d by Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright. — Emily Ngo

Eric Adams holds a microphone in a white shirt and sunglasses

Despite saying the cost of migrants "will destroy New York City," the mayor was firm on his support for the city's sanctuary status. | Violet Mendelsund/Mayoral Photography Office

SANCTIFIED: A week after sparking brief confusion over his support for the city’s sanctuary status, Adams is doubling down on the city’s ironclad allegiance to the policy.

“A sanctuary city is important,” the mayor said, adding it “doesn’t allow ICE to come in and hurt people.”

Playbook spoke briefly with Adams on Friday outside of Delmonico’s steakhouse in lower Manhattan after a ribbon cutting.

Last week, the mayor mistakenly told a reporter he was looking into changing the city’s sanctuary status right after answering a question about the city’s right to shelter.

The Adams administration is in court again Monday seeking to suspend the right to shelter provision as it’s forced to build emergency housing on spaces like recreational fields and former airfields. — Jason Beeferman

More from Albany:

— DocGo CEO resigned after the Times Union reported he lied about his college degree. (Times Union)

— Former Assembly member Peter Abbate might be plotting an Albany return. (New York Post)

— Hochul is looking to other states on how to develop her housing plan. (Newsday)

AROUND NEW YORK

– A city hall clerk in Buffalo was paid more than $500,000 over seven and a half years, despite not showing up to work a single day. (Investigative Post)

– The Seneca County landfill is almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty — and growing (The New York Times)

– A deeper dive into what making Lunar New York a school holiday means (Times Union)

Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.

SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN

MAKING MOVES – Mike Corbett, former senior adviser to City Council Member Marjorie Velázquez, is now administrative manager of the New York City Board of Elections.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Joan Walsh of The Nation … Sara Haines … Jackie Calmes … Ben Dye … Desmond Butler … Erin Madigan White … Chris Taylor

WAS SUNDAY: Richard Wolffe of The Guardian … Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum … NBC’s Henry Gomez ... Elliott S. Feigenbaum … Courtney Laydon … Deanna Rosenberg … Peter J. Solomon ... Frank Hagelberg ... Mody Kidon

WAS SATURDAY: Evan Thies, co-founder of Pythia Public Affairs and a senior consultant to Mayor Adams … Jill Lesser of Finsbury Glover Hering … NBC’s Richard Engel … CNN’s Angelica Grimaldi and Hannah Sarisohn … Molly Hensley-Clancy … Josh Benson … Rory Hammond … Charlotte Green … Tristan White … Andy Serwer … Rubie Schron ... Rabbi Dov Linzer ... Rachel Louise Ensign (h/ts Jewish Insider)

Real Estate

— A bill awaits Hochul that would close a loophole that allows home sellers to pay a $500 fee to avoid disclosing flood risk, lead paint and asbestos (Fortune)

— Madison Square Garden was granted a new five-year operating permit, the shortest extension in the fabled arena's history. (New York Daily News)

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