Orange County is a "sanctuary county." No, it's not, stupid.
Trump’s own DOJ says otherwise. Here is the truth about the 'Sanctuary' myth and what's happening in the Town of Newburgh
Orange County’s legislature, again, unanimously approved a resolution condemning ICE’s planned use of a local warehouse. This time for one at 800 Corporate Boulevard in the Town of Newburgh. And just like last time, Legislator Peter Tuohy gave an incoherent speech explaining his yes vote. So. We’ll remind you here that, alongside former Monroe Town Supervisor Tony Cardone and Town Board member Dorey Houle—Tuohy knew about a poisonous gas on a children’s playground, for years, and covered it up.
So, nothing Peter Tuohy—and Dorey Houle and Tony Cardone—says or does should ever be taken seriously. If they’re willing to put your children at risk to salvage their political careers, which they did, then they should be exiled from political life.
But what you might want to take seriously is that Orange County’s legislature also said—beginning at 19:48 in the above video—that the Town of Newburgh is on its own in terms of fighting the Department of Homeland Security.
The County claims in Chair Laurie Tautel’s statement, and it’s heavily indicated their legal position may also be the state government’s position, that the County can’t get involved because of “Home Rule.”
What’s Home Rule?
“Home Rule” is the thing that allowed the white collar crime spree in the Village of South Blooming Grove to happen in the first place.
Well, that and Attorney General Letitia James’s moral cowardice since 2024 to do anything about it.
Basically, Home Rule prevents the state government, or county, from barging in and and overriding local decisions. Such as a potential zoning issue involving the Town of Newburgh and a warehouse that the Department of Homeland Security owns.
That sounds good on paper, right? Don’t Tread on Me and all that limited government bullshit.
Until you remember that limited government gives you explosive diarrhea. Currently from tainted lettuce, which has killed two people.
And until you remember that Home Rule also exists because cities, towns, and villages outside of New York City wanted to discriminate against black people.
And for you defenders of Home Rule, I’ll point out it bit Orange County residents in the ass. Twice within the last year.
First, it was the spineless inaction of the County and State against Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein. This, for newbies, refers to their ongoing conspiracy to rob Village of South Blooming Grove residents of their right to vote.
Second, again because of Home Rule, the county is leaving the Town of Newburgh to twist in the wind. Telling them: “Good luck. We’re all counting on you.”
Whether or not Home Rule prevents the Attorney General’s office from acting against the federal government is unclear.
We sent a request for clarification to Attorney General James’s office. Whenever we write to them about anything NOT related to South Blooming Grove, they’re pretty responsive. So we will update this post if they get back to us.
And, credit where credit is due. While we are right to point out Mrs. James’s lack of backbone when it comes to taking on the Satmar real estate developers across Sullivan, Orange, and Rockland Counties violating election laws, her team at least writes us back when it comes to ICE.
Congressman Pat Ryan, whom we’ve repeatedly called out for his support of the ponzi scheme known as crypto currency, doesn’t respond at all. That’s because he doesn’t want me to tell you he’s a yes on the Clarity Act, which is yet another giveaway to the tech billionaires currently running our country. (Ryan also was one of few Democrats in Congress to support the equally bad Genius Act.)
“Orange County Strong”? More like KKK Weak
Before we move on to what’s next for Newburgh, I want to touch on the six or seven people in orange T-Shirts in the above video.
The people in the Orange shirts—there were about seven of them total at this meeting—claim to be part of a group called Orange County Strong. I’ve previously received a tip about Orange County Strong, suggesting its membership is made up of some local law enforcement and Orange County Sheriff’s deputies, but that’s been difficult to verify.
What I can say is that they have a website, but that website sets off all of the spam and malware guards on my laptop. So I ain’t linking to it, and you shouldn’t go to it either, unless you’ve got a good anti-virus program like BitDefender.
The group appears to be led by Brian Youmans, whom some of you may know as the guy who wanted to run for Chester Town Board this year, scheduled to do so against Bob Courtenay in the Republican Primary.
Youmans eventually dropped out of this race after getting popped for DWI. One wherein he drove his car into a parked car at the Chester Town Hall, and then proceeded to barf on himself.
Now, I give anyone credit for wanting to speak during public comment. I don’t care what they say. If you get up to speak, congratulations. You are an active participant in our democracy. Thank you.
But.
I will again point out that, just like the last time at the Orange County Legislature… and just like at the three Town of Monroe meetings concerning the ICE Friendly Sheriff Paul Arteta… and just like the Village of Chester meetings on the ICE warehouse and the Town of Newburgh meetings… That despite what you see on Facebook, these MAGA chuds are the minority.
NEVER FORGET THAT.
Youmans just so happened to be the one to speak at this meeting. Just like there was one crazy asshole at the last meeting who wanted ICE to build concentration camps on the grounds of West Point. You know, to protect it from the protestors.
I wanted to mention Youmans though because he said and did a couple of things that need to be corrected.
The first one our headline addresses: Mr. Youmans—pronounced like Humans, which is really funny because he appears to be on the side of rounding up his fellow humans— stated that opposition to the ICE facility in Newburgh would somehow make Orange County a “Sanctuary County.”
It’s not.
We know this because Trump’s own people at the DOJ say it’s not.
In fact, until the 2026 New York State budget passed, Orange County actively collaborated with ICE, housing detainees at OCJ. A practice that is coming to an end this Summer, despite false claims by one of Newburgh’s Town councilmembers.
That collaboration with ICE and Sheriff Paul Arteta was so severe, that three consecutive Town of Monroe meetings in the Fall of 2025 were packed just to voice opposition to the Sheriff expanding its presence in Monroe.
Orange County has been anything but a “sanctuary county.” And if Sheriff Paul Arteta gets re-elected this November, I doubt that will change.
And Which Version Of The Bible Are We Quoting From Today?
Mr. Youmans also opened with a Bible quote, and that’s where I need to level with you because I’ve found a lot of these people quoting the Bible aren’t terrible familiar with what The Bible actually says. For example, Genesis doesn’t start with “In THE beginning” it actually begins with “In A beginning.”
Bet you didn’t know that one.
Here’s another example.
Brian Youmans quoted from Acts 17:26 to begin his speech, stating that God makes the borders of the nations and God / Hashem / Whatever absolutely did NOT do that.
Let’s also leave aside for a second that we don’t know what version of the Bible Youmans is quoting from.
Every version of The Bible offers different translations, and some translations are worse than others. This alone should disqualify anyone from using The Bible as justification for anything when it comes to government and the law.
Something to keep in mind the next time someone wants to use religion as an excuse for a zoning change. Hint hint.
Let’s also leave aside for a second that the Bible, as constructed in one whole unit (including the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and cutting other parts out ) was put together by multiple parties over centuries, and that the words of the Bible were not written by God or meant to imply that what God said is the final word on how to live and operate in this world.
If you’d like further proof of this, I’ll refer you to the existence of The Talmud. If The Bible was written by God, then why would we need a whole ass other book, not written by God, to tell my fellow Jews what the rules are to live by?
The Bible is offering you words and stories that are inspired by God, they are not written by God, nor are they authoritative of what God may or may not want. (She may not even exist at all.)
So implying that GOD somehow made borders of any nation, let alone modern ones like America, is, biblically speaking, total bullshit. (Thomas Jefferson and more than a few Founding Fathers, like Thomas Paine, would agree.)
Finally, both Jesus and Joel Teitelbaum (how do you like that combination?) were both pretty adamant in the separation of Church and State.
Jesus said in Luke 20:25 “He said to them, ‘Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’” So if we’re going to assume the Bible is the Word of God and it’s to be taken literally, who are we to take Jesus’s word any other way?
Joel Teitelbaum, who founded Kiryas Joel here in Monroe, wrote in an editorial back in the 1960s that he believed Dina d’malkhuta dina or The law of the government is the law.
(The fact that some of his followers don’t follow this is a story for another time.)
If we’re taking the Bible literally, I’d add one more thing: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 5-7, taken from The Sermon on the Mount.)
So who has more credibility here, Donald Trump or Jesus?
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So What Happens Next?
On Monday, August 10th—that’s today if you’re reading this—at 7pm at Newburgh Town Hall, 1496 NY-300, Newburgh, NY, our friends at the Mid-Hudson Valley DSA will be organizing another gathering and protest event. You can RSVP for it here.
But honestly, we’re now at the point where Town residents who are interested in stopping ICE are going to need to get legally creative.
In a perfect world, if the Town of Newburgh Board is serious about its opposition to the ICE facility, they’ll get on the phone with the New York City ACLU and see what their options are in terms of lawsuits against ICE.
For example, the proposed change in use of this warehouse from not housing people and murdering them to housing people and potentially murdering them while doing so, requires at least two public hearings and (about) 100 days or so of notice according to the laws of New York State.
That hasn’t quite happened with this facility in Newburgh, and Newburgh can point that out to a federal judge.
The thing is, these lawsuits are expensive.
That’s why we talk about Convicted Felon Tim Mitts as much as we do.
Every time he sues, or threatens to sue the Town of Monroe, he is literally costing you money in tax dollars, because the Town needs to then pay the legal fees to defend itself.
Making Tim Mitts a bigger parasite than you probably thought he was.
Similarly, if the Town of Newburgh wants to sue the federal government, we’re talking about a very long and costly process.
Does the Town want to pay for that? Does it have the funds? Do the taxpayers want to eat that cost? That’s the discussion that will be taking place starting Monday evening.
But I think that if you’re a resident of the Town of Newburgh, and you want to stop ICE, you need to do what I’m gearing up to do to South Blooming Grove: File a federal pro se lawsuit yourself against ICE and DHS.
HOW do you do that? Well, I’m glad you asked. Because The Monroe Gazette, after we finish our final episode on FOIA requests this week, will be interviewing legal experts about those options. As well as other options, if any, that may help Town of Newburgh residents.