Immigration

New York City has discontinued the actions it filed against the Town of Riverhead and the County of Suffolk and most of the other counties it sued in June, seeking to invalidate their emergency orders banning the relocation of migrants and asylum-seekers to their jurisdictions.

OLA of Eastern Long Island (Organización Latino Americana) has hired a civil rights attorney and an immigration attorney to assist the organization in its social justice advocacy and provide pro bono legal services for low-income immigrants on the East End.

Riverhead Town will now have to defend its controversial state of emergency in court. New York City is suing Riverhead , and 30 counties across the state, including Suffolk, asking a court to  invalidate  executive orders that “wall off their borders” to block the city from arranging housing for asylum-seekers in their jurisdictions.

Washington's brand of poison politics has found a home at Riverhead Town Hall, heralding in a new era of ugly divisiveness that should not exist in town government.

There has been no official request from New York City to house asylum-seekers in Suffolk and officials are not aware of any asylum-seekers being sent by NYC to Suffolk, a county spokesperson said.

Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar extended and expanded the town’s state of emergency barring hotel and motels in the Town of Riverhead from housing asylum-seekers this week, continuing a controversial measure immigration advocates say is an abuse of power.

Word of a Guatemalen Consulate opening in Riverhead sparked rumors of a mass influx of unaccompanied children coming to Riverhead, amplified by the radio ad of a local lawyer criticizing officials for doing “nothing to stop immigrants from taking over Riverhead."

When a patron presented his Honduran passport as proof of legal age to buy alcohol, the restaurant manager questioned the man about his visa and entry into the U.S. That’s a violation of human rights law, a N.Y. Civil Liberties Union representative says.

“We can’t allow this to go on again — not in our country, not in our time. My family lived through it once. We don’t want to live through it again.”

William De León is a documented Guatemalan immigrant and has a valid NY driver's license. But that was not always the case. He shared his story Monday evening at a vigil held in Riverhead, where people gathered to pray as they awaited the State Senate floor vote on the 'Green Light NY' bill.