Supervisor Candidate Calls on County Leadership to Amend Emergency Declaration on Immigrants and Asylum Seekers

BALLSTON SPA ­— Saratoga Springs County Supervisor candidate Gordon Boyd delivered a letter to Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chair Theodore Kusnierz detailing what Boyd calls problems with the county’s unilateral Emergency Declaration and Order regarding immigrants and asylum seekers.

On May 19, Chairman Kusnierz, declared a State of Emergency in response to the possible relocation and arrival of a large number of migrants and asylum seekers from New York City. 

Boyd argued that thousands of backstretch workers, many of Latino or Hispanic background, will soon be coming to Saratoga to stable and train horses for the Thoroughbred meet and that their safety and wellbeing may be detrimentally affected by the county’s sweeping order. 

“It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars,” wrote Boyd. “The county’s statement that we are about to experience ‘an extraordinary increase in the number’ of people coming to the county, and that the county ‘would be especially sensitive to further change in population’ strains credulity. We welcome tens of thousands of visitors every day all summer long. The difference now involves the reason people are coming here, not the number of them.” 

Three candidates – Boyd, a Democrat, Democrat candidate Michele Madigan, and incumbent Republican supervisor Matt Veitch will be vying for two available to represent the city of Saratoga Springs seats at the county level on Election Say in November.