Faults Warren County plan for ‘asylum seekers’

Editor:

Regarding the Chronicle’s article [County Administrator John Taflan’s essay, June 8] about Warren County preparing for asylum seekers, my first thought was that this is a leftover April fool article.

After reading it, I have several comments and questions. It apparently refers to immigrants being farmed out from New York City, one of three sanctuary cities in New York State (Albany and Ithaca the other two, plus Westchester County).

New York City virtue-signaled its sanctuary status early on, but when migrants arrived in large numbers, the mayor began to howl, because now ten to twenty thousand migrants are arriving in the city every month, 900 in one day recently.

So the mayor’s plan to solve the enormous problems the ill-considered sanctuary status created is to ship the overflow liberally around the state. ny and all arrivals in NYC are now excess beyond the city’s capacity to handle and will constitute the overflow to be distributed elsewhere.

Is it correct to call them asylum seekers? Not really. Thousands of immigrants cross the border illegally every day, invited in by Biden’s illegal policies in his attempt to alter the demographics of the nation in favor of Democrats.

“Asylum seekers” is a euphemism to imply “refugee” status, just as “undocumented immigrants” is another term invented to avoid the term “illegal aliens,” which was seen by some as derogatory. They are not vetted and were instructed before crossing to say they’re seeking asylum.

The article says the cost to the county will be $5,000 per month per immigrant, and that NYC will pay for food and shelter for an “unspecified” amount of time. Unspecified? That means the county will soon have to pay those expenses as well, as it would be foolish to think NYC will follow through on that commitment. So the cost per migrant will be far more than $5,000 per month.

How many migrants are expected to come to our county? The article doesn’t give a figure, but says it will be “large numbers.” If it’s 300 migrants @ $5,000+ per month, that’s over $1.5 million per month, and over $18 million per year, which is 10% of the county’s $184 million budget.

According to the article, county resources and capacities for necessary services are already stretched to their limits and are inadequate for such an influx, so providing for immigrants will mean a commensurate increase in property taxes (10% in the example), but probably more, since NYC cannot be depended on meet their obligation.

We must ask the questions: who decides how many come, and is there a point at which the influx stops? Is there any control? It’s the duty of public officials to serve the best interests of their constituents. Kowtowing to the problems created by the incredibly incompetent administration of New York City and turning Warren County into a sanctuary county are not in the best interests of the people of this county.

— Paul Gilchrist, Diamond Point

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