On December 29th, my office issued a town wide emergency executive order to prevent charter
bus companies and any chartered vehicle from making unannounced migrant drop offs at any
location within the Town of Clarkstown. This order became necessary after a similar executive
order was issued by New York City Mayor Eric Adams on December 27th, which restricted the
entry of migrants into NYC.
The executive order issued by Mayor Adams was modeled after one already in place in the city
of Chicago. The intention behind both the New York and Chicago orders was to reroute buses
carrying migrants who entered the country illegally away from those cities, which have both
been overwhelmed with an influx of migrants. Since this policy was enacted in Chicago earlier
this month, its suburbs have been overwhelmed with unannounced busloads of migrants simply
being dropped off, often with no place to go and no services available to them. This created
safety and security hazards for the impacted suburban communities, who were unprepared and
ill-equipped to handle these migrant bus arrivals. Seeing the chaos that played out in the
Chicago area, I was not going to sit by and watch this take place in Clarkstown.
In order to prevent Mayor Adams’ bus rerouting from overwhelming Clarkstown, my emergency
executive order bans these unannounced migrant drop offs at any location within the Town of
Clarkstown and gives the town the ability to issue penalties of $750 per person illegally dropped
off, plus impoundment of any vehicles used with related costs and fines.
The timing of Mayor Adams’ order could not have been worse for NYC suburbs. A historic sized
migrant caravan reached the US/Mexican border over the holiday weekend with the potential to
exponentially increase the amount of migrants being bused to New York. Local governments
and first responders have not been given time to prepare, nor have the resources to respond to
the overwhelming needs of hundreds or thousands of unannounced migrants.
This emergency order will be effective initially for 30 days, and the plan is to reinforce this
measure through formal legislative action from the Town Board. This action follows numerous
other code enforcement actions taken by my administration to prevent illegal housing
conversions and rentals to migrants, as well as preventing NYC from housing migrants in
Clarkstown hotels.
Our message is clear: Clarkstown will not allow Mayor Eric Adams to potentially reroute
countless numbers of migrant buses into our community when we do not have the resources or
the ability to process even a single busload of unannounced migrants. The town will vigorously
enforce this order to ensure that we protect our residents and prevent these migrants from
ending up being illegally housed in overcrowded, unsafe, subdivided firetraps.
I urge everyone, if you see something, say something. You are our eyes and ears on the
ground. If you see suspicious buses or vehicles, call the town immediately. In emergency
situations call 9-1-1. Non-emergency calls can be placed to the general dispatch number for the
Clarkstown Police Department at 845-639-5800.
