Miller Mayer immigration attorney Steve Yale-Loehr was quoted by WENY TV in “The Migrant Crisis Battle Between New York City and Upstate New York.” Steve noted that the influx of migrants has cost New York City over a billion dollars and as a result, led Mayor Eric Adams to consider relocating migrants to upstate counties. “It became clear that some of these migrants were going to be coming to upstate New York. Counties, including Cortland County and Onondaga County, issued local ordinances forbidding New York City from sending those migrants to upstate New York.” Steve said the legal issue “is whether there’s a provision in the New York state constitution that requires not just the city of New York, but the whole state to provide a right to shelter. That issue is complicated and it’s before a judge now and we’ll see how the judge rules.” He suggested that a better action plan needs to be implemented across the country overall: “We need to persuade Congress to appropriate more money to help states who have these immigrants. And we need to persuade state legislators that this money should be appropriated from the state to deal with this. And we need to do it at a state level rather than a county-by-county or New York City versus upstate level.”
Steve was quoted by The Guardian in “My Goals in Life Vanished: Afghan Students Rocked by U.S. Visa Denials.” He said, “For countries like Afghanistan or others where there is war, or other problems, it can be particularly hard to show that you intend to return home after you finish your studies in the United States.” Steve also said, “We really have failed the people of Afghanistan in so many ways, going more broadly than just Afghan students.” He noted that a visa rule commonly referred to as the “immigrant intent” test is part of the reason students from Africa and the Middle East face higher visa denial rates than students from western European countries. “It’s basically the discretion of the consular officer that decides whether the person overcomes that requirement. It really depends on the consular officer and whether they’re feeling generous that day or not.”