OAN’s Brooke Mallory
12:05 PM – Tuesday, August 15, 2023
A second local resident recently experienced and reported an alleged sex assault involving an asylum-seeker, forcing an upstate Democrat leader and prior ardent supporter of hosting migrants in the region to change his stance and oppose more resettlements.
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According to reports this past weekend, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz stated that the National Guard will begin providing security at the three hotels-turned-migrant shelters in Cheektowaga, Erie County, within a day or two after learning the facilities are becoming unsafe.
Poloncarz said that the county’s “trust and good faith has been betrayed,” potentially by a NYC-hired business that was paid hundreds of millions of dollars to handle the relocation of migrants from the Big Apple to other regions.
According to the county executive, DocGo “may have interfered” with a Cheektowaga police investigation into the second sexual assault case, which included a hotel employee turned sexual assault victim.
“I demanded [New York City] Mayor [Eric] Adams pause all further transportation of asylum-seekers to our community until such time as we can resolve all security issues,” Poloncarz said during a press conference, Spectrum News reported.
“He agreed and informed me they will not send any additional persons to Erie County at this time,” the official continued. “We also discussed the need for a new and improved security plan.”
Approximately 540 illegal immigrants have been transported to Erie County to help alleviate the city’s migrant influx. Some officials had already called for their removal from the hotels-turned-shelters, claiming that the migrants had not been thoroughly checked for safety precautions and that the towns could not handle the surge.
A Venezuelan male migrant who was bused from New York City to a Cheektowaga motel last week was accused of raping a woman in front of her three-year-old child at the location.
Additionally, on Friday, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was arrested and charged with sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment after reportedly sexually abusing a 27-year-old female Best Western hotel employee in Cheektowaga, near Buffalo Airport.
“Erie County opened its arms to try to welcome these new Americans,” Poloncarz said — who in May judged an issuing a declarationn of emergency that other counties utilized to try and prevent migrants from being bussed in.
“Unfortunately we believe we can’t make the program, as it is presently run, sustainable without significant changes,” he continued. “Our refugee agencies did their best to provide support and assistance. But our community’s trust and good faith has been betrayed.”
Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) has already stated that her team is investigating whether DocGo, which was granted a major $432 million contract by the Adams administration to transport migrants upstate, abused and deceived asylum-seekers.
Many residents were perplexed by the governor’s proclamation since the only major allegations so far have been from hotel staff and American citizens who have been sexually assaulted or abused by migrants, rather than the other way around.
“We are providing support to the staff still on site and remain focused on the individual directly impacted. DocGo has fully cooperated with authorities throughout the investigation and will continue to do so,” the company said.
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