Just hours after New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency over the influx of asylum seekers in the city, NBC New York learned that even more migrants arrived in the state, with little to no advance notice.
The planes arrived at Orange County Airport in Montgomery around 6 p.m. Friday, according to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus. Two flights carried around 24 unaccompanied minors each, all young teens, Neuhaus said.
These groups of young migrants were not sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, however. The flights were chartered by the federal government, Neuhaus told News 4.
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After landing, the children were then put on shuttle buses — also charted by the feds, Neuhaus said — and sent to locations in Kingston, Poughkeepsie and New York City. The county executive said none of the migrants have any familial ties to Orange County.
The flights were greeted by a small group of protesters outside the airport — and Neuhaus said there were no members of the federal or state government on hand to assist the kids, for whom he said he felt bad.
Neuhaus, a Republican, said the federal government could be doing a much better job of managing the crisis, and could be more transparent about operations such as this.
Prior to Friday's flights, Neuhaus said there had been two other flights with migrants aboard land at nearby Stewart Airport, and one other at the county airport.
