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With Title 42 regulations set to expire tonight, Mayor Eric Adams has put on hold his plans to take migrants from the southern border who are bused to New York City and bus them upstate to Rockland and Orange Counties. Rockland County Executive Ed Day has been especially vocal about not accepting migrants from the five boroughs; however, speaking on WOR 710’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program, Westchester County Executive George Latimer says his county would be willing to ease the pressure on the Big Apple--to a point.
“Our attitude isn’t as severe as some of our neighboring counties,” Latimer told Berman and Riedel. “If we’re trying to help release a little bit of the pressure valve in New York City, we’ll help out. We’ll do a certain amount, and we’ll manage it, and we’ll try to make sure that it goes well.”
Still, Latimer said he can sympathize with his Rockland and Orange counterparts. “I’ve worked with Ed Day on other issues. I’ve worked with [Orange County Executive] Steve Neuhaus. They’re good guys. I think there’s a way to get through this, you know, but I’m not the principal guy. I’m just one of the guys on the peripheral of it trying to help out.”
Latimer feels there is enough blame to go around at the national level about who dropped the ball on the surge of migrant expected in the coming days. “It’s a failure of both parties, not just the Biden administration. Both parties failed to come up with a rational discussion. I think the reason why is, there is a certain number of people who just don’t want them here. They want the wall, they don’t want anybody in here, and they’re not willing to sit down and have any policies. Their policy is to keep them out, and if you don’t have two people discussing it to come up with some strategy, then you have no strategy, and then you have people coming in any which way they can come in.”
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