Town of Salina Supervisor Nick Paro said Sunday he was contacted by New York City Mayor Eric Adams' administration about a bus of migrants headed to a hotel in Salina from New York City.
Last week, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon declared an emergency order barring migrants from coming to the county. Paro said despite that order, Mayor Adams' office made it clear they intended to send a bus to a hotel in Salina.
Paro's office said the suspected hotel where the alleged bus is headed to is the Candlewood Suites on South Bay Road.
Paro said the town plans to fight back against this alongside Onondaga County.
"New York City is a sanctuary city that cares very little about giving sanctuary, as of late," Paro said in a statement. "The Town of Salina has made no such promise and should not be held to the standard the New York City mayor refuses to hold himself to. Mayor Adams clearly hopes nobody will find out about a small upstate New York town getting saddled with his illegal migrant issue because, in his mind, nobody should notice or even care about Salina. Well, I care and the people of this community care.”
Paro said he has directed the town attorney to file for a temporary restraining order to prohibit New York City from sending migrants there. He said the issue is not one for Salina to battle, but instead Washington, D.C. and New York City.
Paro called it a "David and Goliath situation."
“Salina hotels are not equipped to become shelters, nor have they been vetted or approved by the State to act as such, even on a temporary basis," Paro said. "Our residents fear what will happen to their neighborhoods if one, or two, or ten buses of illegal migrants roll into our town. Our business climate, strained as it already is by New York State malfeasance, cannot withstand this additional burden, especially in our hotels.”
Many central New York counties have declared emergency orders prohibiting any entities from housing migrants. Onondaga, Oswego, Oneida, Madison, Cortland and Cayuga counties have all filed emergency orders.
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-Sennett) represents the 22nd Congressional District — all of its counties have filed emergency orders. He commented on the orders at a press conference Saturday.
"This is really an argument about resources, not an argument about country of origin or any other descriptor that would describe the migrants," Williams said. "We simply don't have the resources. We're not set up for it and the resources that we have are already fully subscribed and being employed in a very good way."
