The leaders of a suburban New York county are pointing fingers at NYC Mayor Eric Adams after 31 migrants were discovered crammed into a single-family home in a quiet residential neighborhood earlier this month.
The undocumented immigrants, who reportedly traveled to the U.S. from Ecuador and Guatemala, were found sharing a 1500-square-foot home in New City, a hamlet in Clarkstown, Rockland County. Investigators reportedly followed a tip and obtained a warrant to inspect the home, discovering more than 30 migrants living in unsafe conditions. Local officials said children were sleeping in close quarters on bare mattresses in an unfinished basement, the attic and the garage, where extension cords and a microwave were also found. Photos released by the county show a large Guatemalan flag hanging on the wall of one of the bedrooms.
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In a press briefing last week, Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann characterized the three-bedroom home as "a migrant flophouse," describing it as an unfortunate result of the "humanitarian and national security crisis that's been sent to our doorsteps."
"We've never seen a situation this dire," he said.
"We believe that at least 31, maybe more, individuals are living in this house. Some of the most egregious conditions we have ever seen…the electrical totally overloaded, extension cords all over the place," Hoehmann added. "You can see that's the garage, those are children on those mattresses in the garage…this would have been an absolute disaster had there been a fire in this house. People would have died here, first responders would have been injured or killed."
Clarkstown officials believe some of the migrants crossed the U.S. southern border as recently as three weeks ago and were transported from Texas to New York City, before making their way to Rockland County. At least ten more migrants were scheduled to arrive at the house later that week, Hoehmann said.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican, told FOX News Digital that while it is unclear how the migrants ended up at the single-family home, he believes they are part of an "organized enterprise yet to be identified" - and suggested human trafficking could be at play.
"As a former member of law enforcement, I see this as a form of human trafficking and am calling on the New York Attorney General to thoroughly investigate this matter," he said.
Day, who publicly fumed at New York City Mayor Eric Adams in May for bussing migrants to his area with little more than a "courtesy call," said he is unsure if the mayor's office had a hand in helping these migrants travel to Rockland County.
But, he added, "While we don’t know if Mayor Adams is behind this, he has lied and deceived municipalities for months and blindsided counties with buses of migrants multiple times," he said.
Day told FOX News Digital that he was "appalled to learn people were being subjected to such dangerously overcrowded conditions putting their lives at risk" when his office was first notified about what Clarkstown had discovered.
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He blamed President Biden's border policies for allowing the migrant crisis to spiral out of control and took aim at Adams' decompression strategy for overburdening the county's already strapped resources and infrastructure.
"Without question, this is a repercussion of our broken immigration system. While we are a country of immigrants those who immigrated to this country prior did so with support from friends and family and not at the expense of taxpayers. This problem is unsustainable and why I’ve echoed countless times that our immigration system needs to be fixed once and for all or else this problem will have no end in sight," he said.
Day said he has been vocal about the strain open border policies have caused on Rockland County "well before the City of New York attempted to blindside our county."
"The city of New York's plan would have quadrupled the homeless population overnight in our county which has a well-documented housing crisis," he added.
Clarkstown immediately evacuated the home and is taking legal action against the homeowner for housing violations.
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Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who joined Day at the joint press conference last week, took aim at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for ignoring the problem and failing to adequately pressure the White House to secure the border.
"Chuck Schumer needs to get off his behind and do something," Lawler said from the podium.
Echoing Day, Lawler said that Adams should be "held accountable" if he played a part in transporting the migrants to the suburban New York town.
"Who is behind moving migrants from New York City up to Rockland County and across the Hudson Valley?" he asked. "The southern border has been overrun and these communities cannot handle it," Lawler continued. "This cannot continue, period….there needs to be accountability and there needs to be a reckoning here."
The lawmaker further laid into the mayor on social media the next day.
"To have over 30 people crammed into a 1500 square foot home is beyond absurd, and is emblematic of just how desperate Eric Adams is to ship his sanctuary city problems up here to Rockland County," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Adams' office did not respond to FOX News' request for comment.
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