Warren County residents speak out about migrants

Several Warren County residents came to Friday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to voice their concerns or show their support for the possibility of migrants from the Mexican border coming to the area.

“I’m concerned about what I’ve heard on the news about the state’s intentions to send illegal immigrants to upstate New York,” said Linda Clark, who recently ran for the Lake George school board. “Other counties are enacting emergency plans and putting documents into place to mitigate or stop movement” into their areas, she said, urging Warren County to do the same.

As populations of migrants being transported to New York City in recent months have strained the city’s shelter programs, the city has said it intends to send some asylum seekers to other counties. That has prompted several upstate New York counties to declare states of emergency that would block lodging facilities from taking in those migrants.

In addition, concerns about another wave of migrants have come with the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that previously allowed the U.S. to quickly turn back migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for the past three years.

Those restrictions are known as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law allowing curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health, according to the Associated Press.

Warren County has formed a task force that will begin diving into its response to the issue on Monday with a plan to bring it to the board in June, said County Administrator John Taflan.

Some residents at Friday’s meeting expressed concern about local services being strained if migrants came to Warren County in large numbers.

“The demand for social services will overwhelm the system. The demand for housing, especially in the hotels, will have an impact on the tourism industry, along with a host of other issues with schools and law enforcement,” Clark said. “I am imploring you to put together a plan to stop or mitigate the impact this will have on our community.”

Lisa Dauser, who also spoke out against the idea, told the supervisors she hopes “they have a really good plan.”

“What areas of Warren County will be accepting migrants or undocumented immigrants? What is our integration plan? Do we have a plan?” she asked the board members. “Who will vet the individuals brought to our county?”

She said the county needed a plan to protect residents for safety and health reasons. Dauser went on to state her concerns with employment and costs of education.

“As an employer in Warren County, how can we employ these migrants? There is a risk of tremendous (workers) comp issues. How can we do that? We need a plan for that as well,” she said. “How do we educate for integration into society, both children and adults? Will that education be free?”

Two people also showed up to support the idea and offer to assist in the planning process.

Paul Hancock, an economist from Glens Falls, shared that welcoming those seeking asylum could benefit the community.

“These refugees would actually add to the economic growth of any community they are introduced into if they are assimilated properly, which is true of Utica and Buffalo,” Hancock said. “These are people who are ready to start businesses, who are bringing new ideas, new culture, new food and they could provide a renaissance in downtown Glens Falls.”

He explained how the declining population in Glens Falls over the last two decades could be likened to a similar situation in the downtown area of Utica, New York that was turned around by introducing migrants to the city.

“The population in Glens Falls has been declining since 1950, it was 20,000 then and it’s down to 14,000 now. Utica was in the same state and their population has grown by 5,000 between 2000 and 2020,” Hancock said.

Glens Falls resident Kate Roos also spoke of the potential benefits, after Clark started off the public comment fears stating her objections. Roos believes her experience with “refugee assistance” would render her useful in the county’s planning phases.

She encouraged the board to remember no matter where the migrants come from they are all humans.

“I urge the Board of Supervisors, with love, compassion, expertise and experience to form a committee that will look at the current migrant crisis that we may well face, the ongoing migrant crisis that we will face in the future and respond as the decent, loving human beings that I believe are sitting in this room,” she said at the meeting.

Diane Collins of Glens Falls also cited the example of successful integration in Utica and stated it was the board’s “human and civic responsibility” to do all they can to help.

Taflan addressed the matter after the public comments.

“I appreciate the speakers that came in today to talk about the migrants we started hearing a lot about last week,” he said. “We have a taskforce that begins on Monday, with the Department of Social Services, public health, the sheriff, the county attorney, our planning department and anyone else who might have a role in that. Our expectation is that we would develop a plan and bring it to the June board meeting, unless a situation occurs that would make us do that sooner.”

One potential temporary location for asylum seekers could be student housing at SUNY Adirondack.

Holly Liapis, the State University of New York’s assistant vice chancellor of communications, responded to The Post-Star via email on Thursday about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statements earlier in the week saying the state is considering housing migrants temporarily on college campuses.

“We are assessing whether there are SUNY resources available to help with the arrival of asylum seekers,” she said.

SUNY Adirondack officials said they haven’t started having discussions at their campus yet.