NEW YORK — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said her calls for help to President Biden about the “humanitarian crisis” caused by the influx of illegal immigrants into New York City are being ignored.
Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, said the president needs to “take ownership” of the crisis.
“We really are looking for a federal response to this – to take ownership of a crisis and we’ll be there to help but this belongs to the federal government,” she told reporters in Manhattan on Wednesday. “We want the federal government to see that this is a humanitarian crisis.”
Ms. Hochul delivered the stinging rebuke to her party’s leader a day after New York Mayor Eric Adams warned residents to expect emergency migrant shelters popping up around the city.
Mr. Adams told reporters during a news conference on Tuesday at Yankees Stadium in the Bronx that every borough would be impacted by the migrants who have been bused into the city’s Port Authority Terminal daily by GOP governors in Texas and Arizona.
More than 17,000 asylum seekers, mostly from South America, have been bused to New York City from the southern border since April of this year, with an average of five to six buses per day arriving in the city.
The GOP governors from border states said they were sharing Mr. Biden’s illegal immigration crisis with the Democratic-run jurisdictions such as Chicago, New York and Washington.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for New York governor, said the state’s sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants need to end.
“We saw it with the creation of a multibillion-dollar excluded workers fund that was created. They raised taxes in order to pay for it. There’s a green light law that is in place that prevents federal law enforcement to be able to get access to DMV records,” he said. “They keep on trying to find new ways to incentivize and reward illegal entry.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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