ALBANY — Republican state legislators say Democratic colleagues need to amp up efforts to address the growing migrant crisis while continuing to press President Biden to deliver aid to New York.
“New York is now a border state,” state Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt (R-Lockport) told reporters at a Wednesday press conference at the Capitol.
“This is a crisis of our own doing and this is the result of a failure of Democratic policies.
“There’s no other way you can look at this.
“So let’s start with the failure of a coherent border security policy at the federal level, which has been going on for years now.”
GOP state lawmakers are demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul develop a comprehensive plan to handle the growing number of migrants and they want Democratic colleagues to take action on newly-introduced bills Republicans say would address the crisis.
More than 60,000 migrants — many escaping violence, persecution, and poverty in Central America and South America — have arrived in the Big Apple since last summer, with 40,000 currently under the care of New York City.
“There’s just no plan. There’s no planning there. They really don’t have a handle on what’s going on,” ” Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Garden City) said at a Capitol press conference.
“And that makes it very difficult.
“[The] coordination is not there, where it needs to be from the federal government and at the state level.”
Some of the bills plugged by Republicans on Wednesday were introduced in response to controversies that erupted after Mayor Eric Adams unveiled plans to send a few hundred migrants to Rockland and Orange counties — a move blasted by local pols.
- Separate proposals in the state Senate and Assembly would ban the displacement of vulnerable populations like veterans to make space for migrants at hotels.
- Another state Senate bill would clarify that local emergency orders supersede those by the governor after Hochul questioned their constitutionality.
- The GOP Assembly is backing the idea of banning the use of schools, daycares, and similar facilities for migrants.
Two other Assembly bills would beef up oversight of $1 billion in migrant funding to the city approved in the state budget as well as require the state to screen and monitor migrants as they apply for political asylum.
“Now with Homeland Security Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas releasing migrants on their honor, with no court date or process in place, New York must take the necessary actions to register and track those who have crossed the border illegally to ensure our communities are protected and they do not fall through the cracks of our broken system,” Assemblyman Matt Slater (R-Yorktown) said of the bill he is sponsoring to require migrants register with the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
The GOP-backed bills appear unlikely to pass the state Senate and Assembly dominated by Democratic supermajorities ahead of the June 8 end of the 2023 legislative session.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) have said the federal government is ultimately responsible for resolving the crisis.
“Obviously, there has to be more intervention. There has to be more interaction. There has to be more cooperation and more collaboration at the federal level,” Stewart-Cousins said Wednesday.
“All of us have to be able to work together to deal with this crisis, which again, is a crisis in many ways, and certainly, humanity is at the core of it.”
Hochul has called on the Biden administration to take emergency actions to help the state while pushing to loosen work rules for migrants, who have to wait at least 180 days.
“You can complain all you want about what happened at the border and how that ended up there. I’ve got to deal in the reality of managing the crisis,” Hochul told NY1 on Wednesday.
“So does Mayor Adams. So give us the resources. Give us the work authorization, help us out.
“And even in Republican counties in upstate New York and Long Island, they will embrace the opportunity to take these individuals who are here legally seeking asylum if they can work.”
She spent the day in Washington, DC to meet with Democratic members of the state congressional delegation as well as Mayorkas.
A Hochul spokesman did not provide comment on GOP criticism back at the state Capitol that Hochul lacks a comprehensive strategy to accommodate the migrants as fights erupt between New York City and counties outsides its boundaries.
“More of us are going to be dealing with hearing that people are being relocated into our parts of the state and our counties,” Ra, who sponsored the legislation to increase funding oversight, said.
“I think the governor definitely needs to be more involved and make sure that we have some of the things we’re talking about — that we have actual protocols and policies about how we’re going to handle this.”
Hochul told NY1 on Wednesday that New York City will likely need more than the roughly $1 billion included in the state budget approved weeks past an April 1 deadline.
She issued an executive order last week to loosen procurement rules and increase the involvement of the National Guard in helping New York City handle the migrants before begging Biden to step up the federal response in a Friday letter to him.
Ortt, the GOP Senate minority leader, knocked Hochul on Wednesday for not demanding Biden keep Title 42 in place – a pandemic rule that allowed quick deportations of people entering the US illegally — before it expired last week.
“For her to not make any plea about Title 42, to not ask the federal government publicly, or have a meeting in the White House [is bad,” he said.
“And if she did, if the president ignored her, that’s even worse in a lot of ways.”
But he said it would be fine by him if Albany Democrats decide they want to return later in the year to address the crisis, especially if the supermajorities do not address the GOP migrant bills before the last scheduled day of the 2023 session next month.
“We’ve been called back before. And if this really is a crisis, and we don’t get it done, then we should get called back. And if that’s what needs to happen, we’ll come back to pass legislation that protects our local communities, and deals with this crisis,” Ortt said.
