There are more questions than answers when it comes to student-aged migrants heading to New York public schools this fall.

Nevertheless, the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) will be ready.

The road to control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2024 elections will almost certainly lead through New York. So the how the state deals with newly arrived migrants will likely be a hot-button political issue over the next year and a half.

Like Gov. Kathy Hochul, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin told Capital Tonight on Tuesday he would lobby the federal government for further resources, but that’s where his policies toward migrants would diverge from the governor’s.

Earlier this week, the New York Business Council sent a letter to the state's congressional delegation calling for their support for legislation that would reduce the wait time of 180 days that asylum seekers must wait before they become eligible to work in the United States. Heather Mulligan, president and CEO of the Business Council of New York State, told Capital Tonight that the immigration system is a “mess,” but changes to the waiting period for asylum seekers is an “opportunity” for asylum seekers and employers.

According to statistics from the state Department of Labor, the unemployment rate in the state was at 3.8%, which is slightly higher than the nationwide rate of 3.4%. The strong labor market has led to a worker shortage. Mulligan says, “we have record low employment and we have a labor market that’s struggling to find people. At the same time, we have folks seeking asylum who are sometimes being bused here by other states who are actually looking for work and they want to work.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Over the last few days, asylum seekers from multiple countries arrived in Western New York on two buses from New York City.

State Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, said, while New York City is contracted with a local hotel and nonprofit Jericho Road to pay for housing and integration services, the state and Erie County governments have also been working in partnership.

A proposal that would extend subsidized health care coverage in New York to people regardless of their immigration status has drawn skepticism from Gov. Kathy Hochul over its cost.

Advocates are mounting an effort to get her to reconsider.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day announced Wednesday a revised order meant to bar New York City from transporting migrants to stay within the county.

The new order comes after a federal judge on June 6 determined Rockland and Orange counties' initial emergency orders meant to block New York City from contracting with motels and hotels for migrant housing were unconstitutional.

Advocates are trying to ratchet up support for a bill to expand health care coverage to include more New Yorkers regardless of their immigration status.

But Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday signaled she was skeptical of doing so without more money from the federal government.

Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul's message to Biden administration officials was a straightforward one as New York continues to grapple with an influx of migrants.

With President Joe Biden on a speaker phone, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and senior administration officials present, Hochul asked directly for help.

Migrants with asylum seeker status and undocumented New Yorkers could be in line for health care coverage after New York was granted approval to do so by the federal government this week.

But lawmakers will still have to pass legislation to do so in the next several days before the legislative session concludes in Albany.

New York City sued more than 30 municipalities and local leaders mostly in upstate New York on Wednesday, alleging they "have sought to wall off their borders" through emergency orders that obstruct the city's efforts to relocate migrants upstate "in a manner that is explicitly permitted by law and required by a statewide emergency."

Filed Wednesday, the suit asks the state Supreme Court to invalidate the emergency orders filed by the counties under the grounds that they are unconstitutional. It also asks to prohibit the locales from taking steps that "restrict or frustrate" New York City's efforts to address a statewide emergency, which Gov. Kathy Hochul declared on May 9.

New York City is poised to receive more than $100 million in new federal funding to help manage the surge of migrants, Spectrum News has learned.

The Biden administration will provide the city $104.6 million in grant funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter Services Program, according to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, both New York Democrats.

Asylum-seekers have many reasons to leave their home countries. Many of them are fleeing violence so fierce that staying in their home countries could mean death. But arriving in the U.S. is the beginning of another kind of journey – one that will mean navigating a complicated and underfunded U.S. immigration system. And as soon as they arrive, the clock starts ticking.

Susan Arbetter spoke with several migrants about their experiences, as well as Ivy Hest, the co-executive director of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, one of the organizations assisting migrants who have been bussed to Albany from New York City.

Fresh off a trip to the Capitol, Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, joined Capital Tonight to discuss the New York for All Act, which would prevent local law enforcement in the state from working with federal immigration officials without a judicial warrant.

The ongoing story of migrants being bused to upstate New York is a tale of conflicting welcomes.

Some county leaders have been dead set against hosting migrants and angry that New York City is sending them upstate.

New York's public higher education system is prepared to assist with the ongoing migrant situation as campuses are being considered as temporary housing sites, State University of New York Chancellor John King told reporters on Wednesday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is yet to announce which campuses will be used for housing migrants, considered a temporary solution given dormitories will be back in use by students starting in August.

How New York should respond to the thousands of migrants coming to the state is highlighting the political divide seen nationally over the issue.

For Democrats, lawmakers this week backed Gov. Kathy Hochul's push to allow migrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. the opportunity to work on a more expedited basis. Republicans, meanwhile, are criticizing plans to move migrants outside of New York City and, in some cases, potential State University of New York campuses.

The asylum process on the surface sounds like it should be simple, but it isn’t. And anything complicated can cause a lot of confusion.

With this issue getting a lot of attention in New York right now, Rosanna Berardi, an immigration attorney in the Buffalo area, joins Spectrum News 1 to help sort some things out.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As soon as next week, migrants in New York City could be headed to Erie County.

On Thursday, in Buffalo's Niagara Square, they got an early welcome.

Forty New York state lawmakers on Thursday released a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to back an expedited process to allow migrants with asylum status to work.

The letter echoes calls from congressional lawmakers who represent New York in Washington as well as Gov. Kathy Hochul amid an influx of migrants to New York.

The top Republican in the New York state Senate on Thursday in a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul raised concerns with plans to potentially house migrants north of New York City at State University of New York campuses as well as hotels and motels.

Separately, a group of Democratic lawmakers in a different letter to Hochul called on her to consider as many dormitories at SUNY campuses as possible in addressing the housing issue.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In a conversation with the commissioner of the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said he learned migrants from New York City will likely come to the region.

Poloncarz is told it will happen no sooner than a week from now and while a final number isn't clear, people will likely be placed in SUNY Buffalo State University housing and possibly at the University at Buffalo.

A decision as to where expanded housing for migrants who have come to New York will ultimately be is expected "very soon," Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.

Hochul once again confirmed SUNY campuses as well as former psychiatric centers are being considered for housing. Hochul has said the state is reviewing virtually every state-owned property as a potential site for housing.

The fight over transferring asylum seekers from New York City to its suburbs was in the national spotlight Tuesday.

The town supervisor for Orangetown Republican Teresa Kenny testified before a congressional committee, blasting New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

New York state officials are taking additional steps this month that could lead to expanding health care coverage for more undocumented residents living in the state.

It's a long-sought move, and one that could come with tapping into unspent federal money through a Medicaid waiver process. And the proposal comes as the heated debate over immigration has taken center stage as more migrants, many seeking asylum status in the U.S., are coming to New York.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has identified dorms on three SUNY campuses to use as housing sites for migrants, according to a source.

The source told NY1 the plan includes a total of 1,500 beds at the University at Buffalo, Stony Brook University and the University at Albany.

The federal government should expedite the process for tens of thousands of migrants living in New York to obtain employment while they are staying in the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday.

At the same time, Hochul knocked the "bigoted policies" put in place by local officials who have sought to block migrants from staying in their counties.

The story of migrants displacing homeless veterans that caused outrage and death threats was manufactured, according to local officials who had a role in amplifying the hoax.

Sharon Toney-Finch, a veterans’ activist in Poughkeepsie, allegedly recruited homeless men last week to pose as veterans who were kicked out of a hotel in order to make room for newly arrived migrants.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With more than 71,000 migrants currently in New York and mostly in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul says she has been working all week with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the federal government to find housing options.

"We're working closely with them, literally hour by hour, trying to identify places where there are welcoming communities," Hochul said.

New York officials are continuing a search for state-owned sites to provide housing for migrants, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday said, as more county governments this week put emergency orders in place meant to bar them from staying in hotels and motels.

Hochul, in Buffalo for an event to tout the minimum wage increase in the newly adopted $229 billion state budget, told reporters that New York City continues to struggle with finding available housing for migrants.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With the expiration of Title 42, a COVID-19 pandemic order that made it easier to turn away migrants, New York state has seen an influx of immigrants without legal status entering the state.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is discussing potentially housing those people on SUNY campuses.

Sarah Rogerson, law professor and director of the Justice Center and the Immigration Law Clinic at Albany Law School, sat down with Capital Tonight to discuss the migrant situation and the change in enforcement of immigration law.

State officials on Thursday are expected to tour the SUNY Cobleskill campus as a potential site for housing migrants, Schoharie County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Federice said Wednesday in an interview.

At the same time, former psychiatric facilities are also being considered, Federice said.

Migrants entering New York should have expedited approval to gain employment while living in the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday said as the issue continues to roil all levels of government.

County leaders, meanwhile, urged state and federal officials to provide more resources as New York City Mayor Eric Adams continues to send more migrants north of the city to suburban communities.

A report released by New York advocacy organizations on Friday highlighted the difficulties immigrants in the state face in receiving organ transplants that can save their lives, but can be hindered because of their immigration status.

The report comes as advocates and Democratic lawmakers have sought the approval of a measure to extend health care access from the Essential Plan to cover more adult undocumented immigrants living in the state.

President Joe Biden missed an opportunity to begin messaging about the migrant crisis.

He spent part of the day Wednesday in the suburbs of the Hudson Valley, arguably the most important congressional battleground of 2024. He spoke in Valhalla, at Westchester County Community College, about the possible ramifications of the U.S. defaulting on its debt. No doubt a critical issue, but nowhere as immediate, as visible, or as dramatic as the sight of hundreds of migrants being bussed to two suburban towns that don’t want them.

The ongoing migrant crisis in New York is expanding outside of the five boroughs of New York City, prompting a heated clash between Republican county executives, the Democratic mayor of New York City and the Democratic governor of the state.

Local officials have decried Mayor Eric Adams' plan to move hundreds of migrants on a voluntary basis to Orange and Rockland counties — a move made as a federal immigration order meant to curb migration is lapsing.

A day after a Rockland County judge temporarily barred an area hotel from housing migrants being sent from New York City, local officials from the county once again decried Mayor Eric Adams’ plan.

“I urge you in the strongest possible terms: stop,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “Stop what you are doing, because we will not stop fighting you.”

New York state is working to find more sites for housing migrants ahead of an expected influx of people seeking asylum in the coming days and as a growing number of county officials have issued states of emergency to bar hotels from accepting migrants.

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday in New York City, Hochul questioned whether the executive orders issued by Rockland and Orange county executives were constitutional, adding an analysis was ongoing by state officials. Two more county executives — Oneida's Anthony Picente and Steve McLaughlin in Rensselaer County — have released similar emergency orders.

New York state will have more flexibility to obtain and procure resources for local governments to handle the expected influx of migrants seeking asylum with the expiration of the Title 42 immigration policy this week under an order issued Tuesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The order comes as New York City Mayor Eric Adams has moved to create a voluntary program to move 300 single, male migrants to Rockland and Orange counties over objections by local officials, who have declared states of emergency.

The $229 billion state budget finalized last week could have done more to address the needs of immigrants living in the state, according to New York Immigration Coalition Executive Director Murad Awawdeh.

The budget did not provide enough of a boost in legal assistance for immigrant communities, while a proposal to allow undocumented adults living in New York the ability to access the Essential Plan for health insurance faltered in the final days of the negotiations.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With conflicts and instability in countries all around the world right now, refugee and immigrant resettlement agencies in Buffalo are already busy.

Jennifer Rizzo-Choi is the executive director of the International Institute, one of five organizations in the region that comprise the Refugee Partnership.

Advocates are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday to approve new regulations for the immigration bond industry and lay down new oversight rules.

The bill sitting on Hochul's desk addresses the for-profit bond industry for immigration, a system that can draw in tens of thousands of immigrants across the country. In New York, hundreds of immigrant residents can be detained at 76 different locations.

New York state officials are offering new legal services to immigrants who arrived in New York City over the last year, with $3 million planned for the next three years for the New York State Office for New Americans.

Gov. Kathy Hochul's office on Wednesday announced the funding amid the ongoing arrival of migrants and asylum seekers in New York City, many of whom face ongoing immigration and legal status questions.

New York officials on Friday launched an effort to help immigrants transition to life in the United States with help for furthering their education and joining the workforce.

The New York State Institute for Immigrant Integration Research & Policy will be housed within the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a think tank for the State University of New York.

Two planeloads of about 50 migrants landed on Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts on Wednesday afternoon. It was the latest in an ongoing effort by red state Govs. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis to “better facilitate the care of these individuals” who states like Massachusetts, New York and California, “have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration”, according to a statement sent to NPR by a DeSantis spokesperson.

Over the last few weeks, thousands of migrants have been bussed to New York City and Washington D.C. from U.S. southern border locations, leading the mayors of both cities to seek federal assistance.

For the past two months, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered asylum seekers and other immigrants who have crossed the border into the U.S. to be bussed to more liberal states like New York, which are struggling to find the capacity to house them.

According to Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), the asylum seekers arriving in New York City have sometimes walked thousands of miles to the southern border to find safety and economic opportunity.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sought to de-escalate a simmering dispute on Thursday with Texas as Gov. Greg Abbott has sent migrants and asylum seekers from the southern U.S. border to New York City.

Republicans, including Abbott and Hochul's general election challenger U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, have pointed to New York's laws that they say entice undocumented immigrants, including giving them access to driver's licenses.

NEW YORK—Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that the city’s homeless shelter system has experienced a “surge” in recent months of more than 3,000 asylum seekers looking for refuge in shelters that already house more than 48,000 individuals.

Adams said he has been working with the federal government since Tuesday to provide comprehensive support and resources to these families.

A federal appeals court heard arguments this week on the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, which provides protection from deportation for immigrants who came to the country as children.

Pamela Chomba, director of State Immigration Campaigns at FWD.us, told Capital Tonight the program has protected thousands of “dreamers” from getting deported and provided them with economic security and a place in the community.

The fervent pounding of drums and pleading from immigrant New Yorkers rang outside the state Capitol with growing demands for legislators to increase protections against deportation before session ends next week.

The New York for All Act would limit state and local law enforcement from using resources to aid U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents disclosing a person's citizenship or immigration status to U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement in efforts to curb deportation. The bill would prohibit state or local law enforcement, peace officers, school resource officers, state agencies, state employees and probation agencies from disclosing a person's immigration status, nationality, country of origin or corresponding release or court dates as part of ICE investigations, interrogations and inquiries.

Advocates for undocumented immigrants living in New York on Friday urged state officials to use the additional revenue in the state's tax collections to replenish a fund meant to aid workers who did not receive federal pandemic relief and unemployment aid.

The push comes in the final days of the legislative session and after state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to a state budget that did not include new funding for the program, known as the excluded workers fund. The money was meant to benefit workers who were not eligible for federal pandemic payments, which included undocumented workers.

The political arm allied with the New York Immigration Coalition on Friday endorsed nine Democratic incumbents in the state Legislature as the group seeks to flex it muscles in the upcoming elections.

NYIC Action, the sister organization of the New York Immigration Coalition, is issuing a series of endorsements this election cycle for the state Senate and Assembly, pointing to the lack of action over federal immigration policy in Congress.

Expanding health insurance coverage to undocumented New Yorkers has gained the backing a broad coalition of policy experts, business lobbyists and immigrant-rights advocates as state lawmakers debate whether to include it in the state budget due next week.

The issue of expanding health insurance to undocumented people in the state has largely flown under the radar this budget season in Albany as activists have called for additional benefits to aid the undocumented community, such as replenishment of the excluded workers fund.

It's been nearly a decade since temporary status was granted for undocumented immigrants who arrived as children in the United States. And they say the uncertainty hasn't changed.

Nine years ago, President Barack Obama approved the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that gave some legal protections for undocumented immigrants like Astou Thiane.

In the final weeks of the legislative session, progressive legal groups are calling for the passage of a bill that would end contracts between local governments and federal immigration enforcement officials to incarcerate immigrants.

The bill is part of the latest effort to block coordination between the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and New York law enforcement.

An early test for the new Democratic majority in the state Senate in 2019 was a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for and receive driver's licenses. Long a third rail in New York politics, the measure squeaked through the chamber, but with Democrats from key swing districts voting against it.

Rather than punishing the party in power, voters handed Democrats a supermajority two years later.

The family of newborn Quiera has not been receiving federal or state assistance during the pandemic.

Quiera rested calmly in her baby carrier, which was placed in a laundry cart here at a Newburgh laundromat while her grandfather, Nehemias Reyes, folded clothes and shared with Spectrum News his family’s struggles over the past year.

As state lawmakers this month consider the creation of a fund to aid workers who do have not qualified for federal stimulus aid and other benefits during the pandemic, a progressive think tank in a new report found $3.5 billion is needed to provide support.

The report by the Fiscal Policy Institute to be released on Thursday comes as state lawmakers have proposed $2.1 billion in benefits for undocumented workers and people who have left incarceration during the pandemic.

Undocumented immigrant communities are hard to reach during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York has a sizeable immigrant community as well as a population of people who are undocumented and may not be able to access to the same kind of benefits as the rest of the state's population.

A federal court's ruling last week that reinstated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was cheered by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had pushed back against a legal challenge from President Trump's administration in the effort to restart it.

The program, known as DACA, provides legal protections for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.

Undocumented immigrants and excluded workers who do not currently qualify for unemployment aid should receive assistance through a special state fund, a progressive group found in a report to be released later Thursday.

The report from the Fiscal Policy Institute outlines the argument for the fund, which would affect about 5 percent of the state's workers and the 40,000 people who are being released from incarceration.

The State Assembly passed two bills on Monday, as state lawmakers return to pass an unknown number of bills this week.

The Protect Our Courts Act ensures that undcoumented immigrants can participate in the justice system without fear of being deported. It would prohibit immigration related civil arrests against anyone traveling to or from a court proceeding.

Democratic elected officials and immigration advocates in New York on Thursday cheered the U.S. Supreme Court decision that for now preserves the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and prevents the deportation of 700,000 people with Dreamer status in the United States.

“The Court’s decision today is a major victory for DACA recipients, their families and communities, and basic standards of justice, fairness and what our country can be in its best moments," said FWD.us President Todd Schulte. "This ruling was only possible because of the courage and resiliency of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients who bravely stood up and refused to be ignored. It is a decision we will fight to protect."

A federal judge on Wednesday barred the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency from making arrests in New York courthouses, a victory for immigration advocates who had opposed the actions.

The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff blocked ICE from making arrests of anyone on the grounds of state courthouses or of anyone who is required to travel to a courthouse due to being a party or witness to a suit.

As expected on Monday, New York officials filed a lawsuit to reverse the federal government's freeze on trusted traveler programs for residents who are registering or must renew.

Not so expected? The criticism by James P. Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, who knocked the measure that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses, known as the Green Light Law.

Immigration advocates in New York decried the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that will likely pave the way for President Donald Trump's administration to broaden the ability of the federal government to restrict low-income immigrants by denying them visas and green cards when seeking social services.

The Supreme Court on Monday, in a 5-4 decision, lifted the injunction for the rule change, which would broaden the number of benefit programs that qualify under the so-called "public charge" rule and make it more difficult for poorer immigrants to come to and stay in the United States.

As the new legislative session dawns in Albany on Wednesday, FWD.us, a progressive organization backed by business groups, touted the accomplishments of the prior year.

But at the same time, the group in a statement said it wants to ensure those accomplishments -- the passage of a measure allowing undocumented immigrants to access driver's licenses, will be fully enacted.

The United States Customs and Border Protection agency is voicing concerns about New York State’s new Green Light Law.

The law, which went into effect Monday, allows for undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses but it also greatly restricts information the Department of Motor Vehicles can share with federal law enforcement. CBP said it relies heavily on cooperation from its state and local partners to protect the public.

A federal court on Friday upheld New York’s law allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses — paving the way for the measure to take effect on Saturday.

The court rejected a challenge to the law from Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, who had challenged the measure’s constitutionality.

The Niagara County Clerk left a state Supreme Court hearing Thursday with more questions than he had at the outset with regards to enforcement of the state’s Green Light Law.

With the law, which allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, set to go into effect Saturday, Clerk Joe Jastrzemski and the judge appeared to believe they had an agreement with the state Attorney General’s office. Jastrzemski’s staff would refer anybody applying for a license who they suspected was in the country illegally, to the state Department of Motor Vehicles until the Niagara County challenge was fully litigated.

Erie County employees have been thrust in the middle of a political and legal battle over New York’s new “Green Light Law.”

County Clerk Mickey Kearns, D, has maintained the auto bureaus under his management will not process driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, despite the new law. A source familiar with the situation said employees are “concerned, frightened and frustrated” about their position.

A plan to post signs featuring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement tipline at Erie County Auto Bureau are running into issues – but not for the reasons you might think.

Last week, Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns, D, said he would post signs with the I.C.E. tipline at every auto bureau customer service window. The move, in response to the state’s soon-to-be-effective Green Light Law granting driver’s license to undocumented immigrants, caused a stir on its own with elected officials and the general public coming out on both sides.