Earlier this month, prior to 88-year-old Pope Francis’ recent hospitalization, he took the Trump administration to task for its stance on immigration.

In a letter to American bishops, the pope pointed out that in many cases, migrants have left their own countries “for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment." His letter also included a warning for Trump administration officials, stating, “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”

The city's Law Department is suing the Trump administration over what it said was an unlawful seizure of more than $80 million from a city bank account by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), officials announced Friday.

The lawsuit comes after FEMA last week rescinded money it had paid out to the city the week as a reimbursement for expenses incurred covering lodging costs for migrants and asylum seekers.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Some dairy farmers in upstate New York say they don't know just how much the Trump administration's focus on illegal immigration could impact the industry — with stories already circulating about Immigration and Customs Enforcement showing up to farms to pick up specific people with known infractions.

"Our employees all come to us with documents. It's a matter of whether they're legitimate or not and I would say, I look at them. If they look good I move forward. I don't ask questions about how they got here or anything like that so at this point you can tell which ones are nervous," said one upstate farmer who asked to remain anonymous in order to protect his staff and business.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has rescinded more than $80 million in funding to New York City, officials said Wednesday, escalating a dispute between the Trump administration and the nation's largest city over money meant to cover hotels for migrants. The move came as a federal judge said he wouldn't stop the Trump administration from clawing back the funds.

Gone is a $59 million grant that the administration challenged earlier in the week and another award for $21.5 million, City Comptroller Brad Lander said. The money was discovered to be missing overnight, and Lander said no one in his office had been aware that the federal government had access to the city's bank account.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Refugee Partnership is a coalition of five Western New York nonprofit organizations that provide resettlement and other ancillary services to refugees who come to the region.

Jewish Family Services CEO Molly Carr said the agencies were anticipating policy changes and less federal funding with the incoming Trump administration.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. supports closing the southern border, or at least restricting access, until the U.S. addresses the issue of immigration and a "proper" system is put in place to process newcomers.

In an interview Wednesday with Spectrum News 1, Picente shared his thoughts on issues surrounding migrants in the States without legal status and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, which he and other New York elected officials visited last year.

The former head of ICE in New York City said there should be a significant increase in the number of agents if the Trump administration wants a massive rise in arrests.

“We’d need to increase the personnel available in New York. I’m saying at least triple. I mean that still wouldn’t get how many — you’re talking about thousands and thousands and thousands,” Thomas Decker told NY1.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-NY-23, spent about 45 minutes with Buffalo Immigration Customs Enforcement officials Tuesday to discuss how operations have changed under President Donald Trump's new executive orders.

Across the country, ICE has reported detaining individuals including three this past week in Western New York.

As the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants lacking legal status continues across some of the nation’s largest cities, local officials across upstate New York are watching closely.

“He’s off and running,” said Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin. “He’s doing what he said he was going to do, he’s doing what the people voted for, what they say they wanted.”

Even before taking office, President Donald Trump announced that he would be taking multiple executive actions to address the issue of immigration, which has been a main pillar of all three of his presidential runs.

On Monday, during his inaugural address, he repeated some of those promises, including an end to birthright citizenship, and his intention to declare the border a "national emergency."

With days until Donald Trump’s next presidential inauguration, New Yorkers gathered Thursday to hold in-depth conversations about the incoming administration and what Trump’s policies might mean for immigrant New Yorkers.

“It’s devastating to hear about the fear that exists in the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of people,” Rev. Fred Davie said.

Advocates held a rally in Albany Wednesday calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to pass several bills to protect immigrants in the state as President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.

The four pieces of legislation include a bill that would prohibit state and local agencies from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In 2019, New York state lawmakers passed what is known as the Green Light Law, allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.

But in order to ensure the federal government didn't then target those individuals for deportation, the state restricted federal access to DMV records and prohibited local law enforcement from sharing certain information with immigration authorities.

The city plans to close the Floyd Bennett Field migrant shelter in the near future, one of more than a dozen that have shut down or will shut down in the coming months amid a drop in the number of migrants in the city’s care, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.

Fifteen of the shelters are in New York City, while 10 others are elsewhere in New York state, a press release from City Hall said.

After discussing the cost of living at a related press conference in Albany on Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul was asked about Tuesday's new Siena College poll in which most New Yorkers said they want the state to support President-elect Trump’s efforts to deport migrants.

Hochul said the poll wouldn’t influence her, but she teased new and detailed policies around immigration and enforcement, saying the public, law enforcement and Washington need to know where she stands.

Facilities sheltering migrants from New York City are closing this week.

The Albany Ramada Plaza facility was closing Tuesday and the Albany Holiday Inn Express facility will close on Friday; other recent or impending shelter closures in the region include the SureStay Plus Best Western in Albany, the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh and the Red Roof Inn Plus in Poughkeepsie, according to the office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- Jewish Family Services of Western New York said it has been in ongoing negotiations and discussions with New York City for the past couple of months regarding the final scope of work it would do on a Coordinated Entry Program for hundreds of migrants the city bused to Erie County more than a year ago.

JFS said a finalized contract is still pending but Mayor Eric Adams' administration notified the non-profit a few weeks ago it could resume work in hotel shelters in Amherst and Cheektowaga, including case management and housing placements. State Sen. Sean Ryan confirmed the process of finding more permanent housing is underway.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Cracking down on illegal immigration was one of the key promises President-elect Donald Trump made during his campaign.

Trump has tapped upstate New York native Tom Homan as his "border czar" tasked with carrying out those vows.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised what he calls “mass deportations” of immigrants lacking permanent legal status once he returns to office, an expansion of one of his first campaign’s signature policy issues.

But Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, told Capital Tonight that there are online resources for migrants who are concerned about their status, including at nyic.org/resources.

On the campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump pledged his administration would begin mass deportations of undocumented immigrants if elected. Hours after it was declared he would return to the White House in 2025, reporting confirmed that could begin on day one.

“We have to let them come back in, but they have to come in legally,” he said in the early morning hours Wednesday during his victory speech.

A majority of Americans across the political spectrum support deporting undocumented immigrants and believe them to be a threat to democracy, according to the latest American Identity Poll from Ipsos and Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship released Friday.

But a vast majority of Americans across the board are opposed to deporting immigrants who have entered the country legally, and believe that immigration is a part of United States tradition.

The final night of the Republican National Convention is Thursday with former President Donald Trump delivering the keynote speech and officially accepting his party’s nomination for the third consecutive election.

One of the notable people in the audience will be Hudson Valley U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, who has introduced legislation creating a registry of immigrants in the country illegally who have committed felonies.

With immigration setting the stage for political battles on the state and national level, one group of leaders is working to figure out how to best handle those who have arrived in New York in a bipartisan, non political way.

Those involved in the Ellis Island Initiative argue that can be done by recognizing their economic potential.

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- It can take months for Canada to process visas and work permits when its temporary citizens apply through the traditional method.

However, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said there is a loophole that's causing Western New York ports of entry like the Rainbow Bridge and Peace Bridge to "look like a merry-go-round." He said the practice known as flagpoling, when people enter the U.S. and loop around the flagpoles before submitting paperwork upon reentry, can shorten the processing time to days.

Advocates and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would prohibit local law enforcement and other officials from questioning individuals regarding their citizenship or immigration status, as well as sharing information about someone’s immigration status with federal enforcement officials except under certain circumstances.

Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, told Spectrum News 1 the New York For All Act would help immigrants, regardless of status, who he says are put in an challenging position by the U.S.’s immigration system.

The Rockefeller Institute and the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society will hold a conference on immigrant integration efforts in New York state next Wednesday, May 22.

The role that immigration will play in the next presidential election, as well as how New York is handling the influx of migrants, has been covered extensively by the media, but not how migrants are fitting into our communities.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- It's been more than nine months since migrants from New York City began arriving by bus to several Erie County hotels.

State Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, said 539 individuals continue living in those suboptimal conditions today.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Since New York City awarded DocGo a $432 million no-bid emergency contract last year to coordinate housing and services for migrants, the company has drawn significant controversy and scrutiny.

Mayor Eric Adams said the city will not renew the contract, which expires May 5. State Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, is among DocGo's many critics.

Federal funding toward the city’s migrant crisis could soon be flowing again.

Senator Charles Schumer announced on Thursday his office helped the city finally unlock federal funding for thousands of migrants in the city.

Some state lawmakers and immigration advocates are rallying for legislation that would guarantee a right to counsel for immigrants in New York state. In particular, it would provide legal counsel for individuals involved in immigration court proceedings including deportation, and ensure that recent arrivals can apply for work authorization "swiftly."

Advocates described it as a “major push” prior to both the state Assembly and Senate voting on their one-house budgets this week.

President Joe Biden had urged Congress to pass a bipartisan Senate deal on immigration, saying it would give him new emergency authority to “shut down” the border.

But after Donald Trump called the bill “a gift to the Democrats,” and that the Democrats “want this for the presidential election so they can now blame the Republicans for the worst border in history,” the bill failed to move in Congress.

Dozens of mayors and county officials from across the country are calling on the Biden administration to permanently extend the number of days a work permit remains valid while renewal is pending for certain applicants. It's the latest ask for federal action by local Democratic officials who say their cities are struggling with a surge in migrants.

In an email sent to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Jaddou, the group of 43 local officials asked the administration to increase the automatic extension for Employment Authorization Documents, allowing them to stay valid for 540 days — rather than the current 180 — amid the renewal process.

Local 32BJ is positioning itself as the bridge between the governor and the Legislature in an effort to secure a deal on housing.

Its leaders are building a coalition of unions that could be the extra push needed to finally break the gridlock in Albany.

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- A federal lawsuit filed in New York's Southern District claims employees including senior staff for DocGo — the New York City contractor handling migrant services there and other parts of the state including Western New York — and New York National Guardsmen exploited and had inappropriate relationships with asylum seeking guests staying at the Comfort Inn Hotel near the Buffalo-Niagara Airport.

Attorney Nate McMurray represents migrants and employee whistleblowers behind the complaint.

Mayor Eric Adams wants more money from the state to help with the migrant crisis, but he never asked the governor for it directly when he met with her privately Tuesday in Albany.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said that Adams never told her about a new request he made to the Legislature — that the state would pick up at least 50% of the city’s migrant costs.

Mayor Eric Adams was first in line to kiss the political rings Tuesday, hammering home New York City’s need for millions of dollars more in state aid to help contain the migrant crisis.

“New Yorkers are already carrying most of the asylum seekers. It is wrong to ask them to do more. It has put the city in a precarious situation. Today we are asking the state to increase its commitment to 50% of our cost," Adams said when testifying before a joint legislative budget hearing in Albany.

New York Republicans are focusing on a confrontation with the NYPD outside a migrant shelter last week to unload on Democrats — charging Gov. Kathy Hochul with failing to use tools available to her in New York as Congress debates the passage of President Joe Biden’s border bill.

“The governor made the comment ‘they should be deported.’ If she wants them deported, well, she’s gonna have to do some different things. She’s gonna have to remove Alvin Bragg, which is what she should have done the day after this,” Republican Sen. Minority Leader Robert Ortt of Lockport said during a Conservative Party of New York State retreat at the Albany Hilton Hotel.

For more than a year, migrants have been bused from the southern border to Democratic-led cities like New York, putting a strain on the social safety net and uprooting migrants who, in some cases, have traveled hundreds or thousands of miles.

Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, joined Capital Tonight on Thursday to discuss the budget and the impact it’ll have on New York’s immigrant community.

New York Republican leaders in the state Legislature are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to deploy the state's National Guard to Texas and New York's northern border to assist in the flow of migrants coming into the U.S., according to a letter they sent Thursday.

"More than 8 million border encounters have occurred since President Biden took office. In 2023, over 2.5 million migrants entered the country through the southern border. In December alone, 302,034 encounters were reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. On New York’s Northern Border, 91,640 illegal crossings were reported in the past year," the letter states, signed by state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday said state Republicans continue to perpetuate chaos with inaction as thousands of migrants come to New York seeking refuge, and demanded they urge their colleagues in the state's congressional delegation to back a bipartisan deal on immigration and border restrictions if they want to see the humanitarian crisis resolved.

Senate Republicans in Albany proposed a legislative package to counter Hochul's education proposals in her executive budget that would change the amount of school Foundation Aid for districts with declining enrollment. The governor has proposed to end the "Hold Harmless" provision that ensures schools receive the same amount of aid as the year before.

While crime was among the animating issues of the 2022 election cycle in New York, it’s looking more and more likely that immigration will be front and center during the upcoming 2024 cycle.

Because of that dynamic, there is a new effort among a coalition of groups, including unions, faith groups and the business community, to spotlight the benefits that immigrants bring to New York state.

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- Throughout the Erie County executive race, Republicans focused on incumbent Democrat Mark Poloncarz's decision to initially welcome more than 500 asylum seekers from New York City to the region.

Claiming victory with a roughly 18-point lead over challenger Chrissy Casilio Tuesday night, Poloncarz framed the win as an affirmation of Democratic values and rebuke of divisive politics.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is considering cutting back on how much the state will spend on the migrant crisis going forward, arguing the “unsustainable” situation could negatively impact other areas of the state budget.

New York City’s struggle to house, feed and offer other services like legal assistance ranks at the top of the state’s “most pressing” burdens, according to an Oct. 28 memo penned by Hochul’s Division of the Budget Director Blake Washington.

New York state spent over $316 million between April 1 and Sept. 30 on emergency funding related to the ongoing migrant situation, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office said in a report Friday.

New York City has spent more than $2 billion on the influx of asylum seekers.

On the heels of news that Mayor Eric Adams is looking to possibly house migrants outside, dozens of New Yorkers and advocates protested outside of his Fort Lee, New Jersey co-op that he owns with his longtime partner.

“When immigrant rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back! When housing rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” advocates chanted outside the building where Adams owns a co-op.

Gov. Kathy Hochul once again extended an executive order that declares a state of emergency in response to the arrival of migrants, her office said Monday.

According to the governor, the order will give the state more flexibility to procure the resources for local municipalities to support asylum seekers and provide humanitarian aid. It also continues to allow New York state to mobilize members of the National Guard, which currently provide logistical and operational support at shelter sites.

New York state has identified 18,000 job openings involving 400 employers who are willing to hire migrants and asylum seekers who have reached legal work status in the U.S., Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced Monday.

Hochul has been imploring state business leaders over the last few weeks about securing employment for asylum seekers, which she has said repeatedly will solve two solutions at once: addressing the humanitarian crisis with the migrant influx in the state that has filled shelters while also addressing businesses' labor shortages.

More than 100,000 migrants have made their way to New York City as states like Texas continue to transport them from the southern border.

As the city, state and federal governments deal with the influx, New York state Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who also serves as the Brooklyn Democratic Party chair, is calling for an “equitable response” to the influx.

Oneida County has issued an emergency order that bars the acceptance of newly-expanded New York City rental housing vouchers without the authorization of County Executive Anthony Picente, his office announced Thursday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced earlier this week that city-funded housing vouchers for homeless New Yorkers could be used outside the five boroughs. It's part of efforts to ease the homeless population in city shelters as officials are scrambling to make way for more asylum seekers.

New York will deploy another 150 National Guard members to assist with the state’s ongoing migrant influx, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday in New York City.

That will bring the total number of members assigned to help with migrants to 2,200.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Department heads and representatives from migrant service organizations told Erie County legislators at a Thursday meeting the county has incurred nearly no extra costs since downstate migrants began arriving in early June.

They said the company DocGo, contracted and paid for by New York City, continues to handle all expenses connected to housing and providing things like food and clothing for the population staying in local hotels.

Gov. Kathy Hochul continued her calls to Congress Wednesday to tackle immigration that addresses the migrant influx New York currently faces, taking direct aim at Republicans in the House of Representatives who have recently called on her to call a special legislative session in Albany to handle the crisis on the state level.

“Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy, other than wasting his time pursing idiotic ideas like impeaching the president based on nothing, ought to bring back the Republicans, of which there are nine from the state of New York, who should be feeling this and hearing about this, instead of calling on us to do something,” Hochul said at a briefing in New York City. “Immigration is a federal problem. It calls for a federal solution. President Biden has bills out there, ideas out there on how we can work together with Republicans, and they won’t get back to work and deal with this.”

Two New York state lawmakers on Thursday announced new legislation that aims to prevent one municipality such as New York City from transferring migrants to upstate communities without notification and getting their permission to ensure these municipalities are willing and able to host them.

Drafted by Republican state Sen. Jim Tedisco and Democratic Assemblymember Marianne Buttenschon, the “Migrant Home Rule Transfer Transparency Act” would give a 30-day requirement for a municipality like New York City to alert another of their intention to transfer migrants. If the receiving municipality does not pass a resolution to accept them, they would have to go elsewhere.

New York Assembly and Senate Republicans are calling for an extraordinary session of the legislature to address issues around the influx of migrants to the state. The conferences have sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul urging her to “address the issue head on."

“I think one thing we can agree on in a bipartisan manner is this is a crisis. We’ve had 100,000 migrants come to this state,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay told Capital Tonight. “Clearly, this influx of people is taxing social services, is taxing law enforcement. It’s taxing our citizens and our communities.”

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander declined to approve a $432 million emergency contract with DocGo, a medical services provider the city had tapped to care for asylum seekers.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Lander said he returned the no-bid contract to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said hundreds of thousands of migrants showing up at the U.S. border is both dangerous and unmanageable.

"We need to have commonsense bipartisan solutions to fix the problem because there is a place for legal immigration and there is a place for us to take care of people seeking asylum and refuge," she said.

Last week, the Hochul administration called out the federal government to get more assistance for the influx of migrants that have come to New York from other states like Texas. This week, the Biden administration, through Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, responded by sending a letter to Gov. Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams and called out structural and operational faults in New York City’s response.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a Democrat, told Capital Tonight that he believes the “criticism of New York by the federal government is misplaced,” and adds that Mayorkas’ response did not “really address the major needs.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A temporary restraining order granted Friday will remain in effect barring any additional placement of asylum seekers at three hotels in the town of Cheektowaga.

Attorneys representing the town and the hotels conferenced in state Supreme Court Monday to discuss Cheektowaga's motion for a more permanent preliminary injunction. The parties had been in talks over the weekend to settle outside the courtroom.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security responded to Gov. Kathy Hochul's repeated requests for more support to address the ongoing migrant influx in New York.

According to a letter dated Sunday to the governor from Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas, federal officials said they observed and met with New York City leadership on the issue and have come up with around two dozen recommendations to improve the handling of migrants.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling on President Joe Biden and the federal government to offer more support to New York as the state works to address an influx of migrants.

At a news conference Thursday, Hochul discussed a letter that calls on the federal government to “take executive action and direct significant financial assistance” to support the state.

TONAWANDA, N.Y. -- Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday she is allocating $36 million to support migrant case management programs in upstate New York.

"I am grateful to counties like Erie and Monroe and Albany County and many others that have stepped up to help welcome these individuals, let them be part of the community and the second they can work, they are now contributing," she said.

Gina Quinn and Yolanda Adrezzone have both lived in Bellerose, Queens for more than 20 years. They say they are unhappy about their new neighbors, the 800 single migrant men who have moved into city-run tents outside the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.

"This is a residential area. That doesn't belong here. Put it somewhere else, Mayor Adams," Quinn said. "I'm hoping that George Santos can help us."

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With Jericho Road Community Health Center's Vive shelter at capacity for months, SUNY Buffalo State University said it agreed to allow several dozen asylum-seeker clients to stay in campus dorms from May to early August.

However, New York state Assemblymember Jon Rivera said Jericho Road expected that term to last until the end of the month and was in conversations to extend it through February. Instead, he said they were given a week's notice to be out by Aug. 21.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is looking into accusations that medical services provider DocGo mishandled migrants in their care, a spokesperson for her office said Monday.

The provider is being accused of giving inaccurate information to migrants about employment opportunities, as well as allegedly making threats and hurting their ability to obtain asylum. This includes allegedly enrolling migrants in a health care plan that they were not eligible for.

New York state has received a tentative contract from the Biden administration that will allow officials to open a migrant relief center at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday.

For months, the state has sought permission to use the federally owned former airfield along the shores of Jamaica Bay as a site for a migrant shelter, Hochul told reporters after an unrelated news conference in the Bronx.

More money is going to New York City to help with the influx of asylum seekers.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday that a $20 million investment will help speed the casework filing process as asylum seekers look to exit shelters and seek legal work status.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In response to two separate alleged incidents of sexual assault committed by a migrant, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz insisted over the weekend Mayor Eric Adams stop sending people from New York City.

On Thursday, Poloncarz reiterated the county is not permanently done with the relocation program.

In response to two alleged sexual assaults in Erie County involving the migrant community, as well as a request from Monroe County for increased security to deal with the influx of migrants, Gov. Kathy Hochul has called up the National Guard.

Both county executives Mark Polancarz, of Erie, and Adam Bello, of Monroe, are Democrats.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- How to deal with the surging migrant population has been a hot debate topic across the country and particularly in New York, with tens of thousands of people coming to New York City over the last year, and some beginning to relocate to upstate cities this summer.

"We've seen some polling with at least some voters that this is one of their top issues, one of their top concerns and when that merges with another top concern, which is crime, it can have a huge political fallout," Democratic political analyst Jack O'Donnell said.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Jericho Road has been providing case management support and health care services since migrants began arriving in Erie County.

CEO and founder Dr. Myron Glick said while the young staffer allegedly sexually assaulted by an asylum seeker was not his employee, everybody is upset about the situation.

The federal government continues to provide few answers to Gov. Kathy Hochul and state officials pleading for expedited workforce authorization for thousands of people from the Southern border in search of a better life.

The ongoing migrant issue took center stage at an event in Albany on Thursday where the governor detailed plans to upgrade the Albany International Airport as part of nine state-funded projects to modernize regional airport facilities.

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.