LIBERTY  – On Thurday evening of last week, the City of New York dropped off nearly 40 Venezuelan asylum seekers at the Knights Inn in Liberty.

“I went down about 5 p.m. and about 40 local residents were there,” Liberty Supervisor Frank DeMayo said.

DeMayo said when the bus arrived there were approximately 40 people onboard, many of them males in the late 20s to early 30s.

And almost as quickly and mysteriously as they arrived – they were gone.

“They left,” DeMayo said yesterday morning. “I got a call on Sunday and went down to the Knights Motel at 6 p.m. and stopped in.

“The person behind the desk said they came downstairs with all their bags and left about 2:30 on Sunday,” he said. “No idea why. I wish I could tell you. It’s done at the moment.”

Sullivan County Director of Communications Dan Hust confirmed the news, saying “all the asylum seekers staying at the Knights Inn in Liberty have been relocated to Poughkeepsie.”

While they were here

Using Google translate the Democrat was able to interview the men on Friday.

Luis Rodriguez said, “We came yesterday on two buses and are going to stay here, in Liberty.

“We came here (to the USA) to work due to the economic state of Venezuela. We left our families and we only have the clothes we are wearing,” Rodriguez said.

“We are looking for clothes,” Rodriguez said.

DeMayo said, “{Legislator] Luis [Alvarez]spoke to them and helped interpret for me, too. They are all hanging out now – all they want to do is work.

“They are being closely monitored by case workers and security, full-time around the clock,” DeMayo said. “It is all being paid for by the City of New York.

“It’s calm,” he said.

DeMayo said that the City of New York subcontracted a company to handle this transport.

“It is my understanding the [Knights] motel was only contracted for two weeks,” DeMayo said. “I’m not happy with the city – they really needed to coordinate more.”

In anticipation of the arrival of the asylum seekers last week, Sullivan County issued a State of Emergency at 1 p.m. Thursday.

“This will affect us for years to come,” Legislative Chair Rob Doherty said Friday. “Unfortunately [Sullivan County’s response] is a work in progress.

“Orange County took one path, then the upstate counties took another path and we have to decide what’s best for Sullivan County,” Doherty said. “New York City clearly does not have a plan.”

Doherty expained that in the 1970s Sullivan County was rich with large hotels with an estimated 10,000 hotel rooms available for rent.

He said today, there are only 2,000 rooms.

“We don’t have a lot of hotel space,” he said.

And on top of that, “We are in a housing crisis,” Doherty said.

The city will not pay tax or room tax for the rooms they rent, Doherty said, thereby hurting the county’s coffers.

No asylum seekers in Monticello

Monticello Mayor George Nikolados said he went down to the Super 8 Motel on East Broadway, Monticello on Thursday night and although the buses stopped, no one was let out.

“They canceled their order on account of the rooms have access from outside,” Nikolados said. “They need corridors for safety reasons.”

DeMayo said he had set up a meeting with New York State Senator Peter Oberacker to discuss possible solutions to address the asylum seeker crisis.

“We have a plan for a comprehensive plan,” DeMayo said. “What can we do as a community to do our small part? These are good folks.”