SUNY Buffalo evicts illegal immigrants from dorms as students return

Illegal immigrants are being evicted from the dormitories at SUNY Buffalo State University after parents of students raised concerns about reports of migrants that have been recently charged with sex crimes in nearby Cheektowaga hotels.

Buffalo State University abruptly ended its agreement last Monday with Jericho Road Community Health Center, which allowed illegal immigrants to live in the dorms on campus. Now, 44 of them have been asked to pack up their belongings and find a new place to live, according to The Buffalo News.



Interim Buffalo State President Bonita R. Durand announced the decision to revoke the permit in a statement, writing: "As we are welcoming our students back to campus Tuesday, we wanted to ensure the best possible learning environment for our students and smooth functioning of our university operations."

"I made the difficult decision to discontinue the revocable permit and want to reassure our university community that as our students return to campus Tuesday, they will find their learning and living environment as they expect," Durand said, according to the outlet. "We have attempted to connect Jericho Road to local organizations that we hope can help find alternate housing for the clients of Jericho Road."

Dr. Myron Glick, Jericho Road’s founder and CEO, told the outlet that Buffalo State officials had explained to him that the university decided to revoke the permit over recent sexual assault cases at Cheektowaga hotels in which illegal immigrants had been charged. Parents of students had reportedly expressed concerns, leading to the decision being made.

Glick slammed the university's decision as "prejudice" and explained that others should not be judged by the actions of a few.

"We live in a community where there's prejudice," Glick told the outlet. "And this decision was made, really, in my opinion, as – what's the right word? – in reaction to that prejudice."

According to The Buffalo News, the illegal immigrants that had been staying at the university were not among the 540 that were sent to Cheektowaga hotels on buses from New York City this summer. Glick said that several families had been staying at the university, with a dozen children under the age of 12.

Of the 44 illegal immigrants occupying the dorms, 32 of them are from African countries, including Nigeria and the Congo, five are from Colombia, four are from Haiti, two are from the Dominican Republic, and one is from Iraq.

"I felt compelled to speak out about this action by Buffalo State because it was discriminatory against these asylum-seekers who are human beings just like you and me," Glick said. "We do worse by the families we are serving if we don't speak up for them. They need to know we stand with them as fellow human beings. We cannot be silent in the face of injustice."

Durand had informed Jericho Road of the decision in a letter last Monday, which stated that the illegal immigrants had until Friday at 5 pm to leave the campus dorms.

"Please discontinue use of the premises and remove all of Jericho Road's property and the property of the occupants from the premises and restore the premises to the same condition it was in before use," the letter stated.

Jericho Road officials told the outlet that they are struggling to find new accommodations for the illegal immigrants that have been evicted.

The state of New York has been inundated with illegal immigrants due to President Biden's open border policies and the state's "sanctuary" status for illegal immigrants. The Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams (D), has recently called for the city's sanctuary status to be revoked and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has declared a state of emergency over the surge in illegal immigrants.