Judge Extends Temporary Restraining Order On Migrant Transports

A New York Supreme Court Judge Thursday extended and reaffirmed the Temporary Restraining Order against the City of New York’s shelter program. This extension continues to prohibit the City from transforming hotels and motels in the County of Rockland into shelters.

New York City had originally planned to house 340 migrants in a makeshift shelter inside Armoni Inn and Suites in Orangeburg, but after a judge put a temporary restraining order in place, that plan ground to a halt.

Along with the retraining order, a State of Emergency was declared in Rockland to prevent the City’s decompression program from more than quadrupling the number of homeless in the County’s care.

More than a dozen other municipalities have enacted similar emergency orders including Broome, Chemung, Cortland, Genesee, Greene, Herkimer, Oneida, Orange, Orleans, Oswego, Otsego, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Schuyler, and Tioga counties, in addition to the Town of Riverhead, Long Island and the Town of Fishkill in Dutchess County. All under the reasoning that they do not have the facilities to house the migrants.

In the most recent ruling, the Judge strictly ordered that the Armoni Inn & Suites can only operate as a hotel for normal business, as it had in the past, and cannot operate as a shelter as they were intending.

Violation of that order could subject Armoni Inn & Suites and the City of New York to contempt of court.