Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) is sending New York Army National Guard soldiers to upstate counties where immigrants have been bused out of New York City and placed in hotels following sexual assault allegations at an Erie County shelter.
The deployment of an unspecified number of new soldiers to Erie County is in addition to 1,800 who have already been activated by Hochul to provide security and assistance at 30 hotel immigrant shelters in New York City, according to the governor's office. Another 18 hotels where immigrants are housed have been staffed by state and local police.
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The move comes days after New York City bused hundreds of immigrants to two hotels located more than 350 miles to the opposite side of the state, in Erie and Monroe Counties. Approximately 500 immigrants were moved into a hotel in Cheektowaga over the weekend.
In the past two weeks, two immigrants were arrested in separate incidents for sexual abuse and imprisonment, including one attack against a worker for a local immigrant assistance organization in early August and another against an immigrant on Aug. 11, the day before Hochul's military activation.
"This is a self-made crisis, and it's on them to fix this. No one in Erie County asked for this crisis to come here to this community,” Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) said during a press conference in Cheektowaga Monday. “I hate to be the guy to say, ‘I told you so,’ but there's an awful lot of people in public life that said ‘I told you so’ that this would happen, that we would have a rise in crime.”
Hochul announced the deployment of additional troops on Saturday following a request for security from Monroe County Executive Adam Bello, a Democrat. Both assaults occurred the week before Hochul decided to send in more troops as security.
The New York Immigration Coalition disagreed with the state's decision to send the military into the upstate hotels.
"The reality is that a militarized presence will reaffirm the kind of beliefs that have historically resulted in violence directed towards asylum seekers and people of color," said Cassandra Bocanegra, NYIC's manager of organizing and strategy for the Finger Lakes region, in a statement.
"We are deeply disappointed that the county executive has failed to recognize the impact that militarization could have on migrant individuals and families with children — many of whom came to this country and state seeking refuge from violence and abuse," Bocanegra said.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a Democrat, announced last weekend that the county would no longer receive immigrants from New York City.
Langworthy said adding troops into the upstate communities was not the ultimate solution.
“Gov. Hochul, she should help the people of Erie County — send about a dozen buses up here and bring the folks back to New York City where they came from,” Langworthy said.
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New York City and the state have each declared emergencies responding to nearly 100,000 immigrants who traveled to the state and sought refuge after illegally crossing the southern border.
Hochul's office did not respond to a request for additional information.