An emergency announcement by Governor Kathy Hochul sadly illustrates the failure of the state to effectively deal with the migrant crisis largely created by unrealistic state polices, Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin said today.
The afternoon announcement by the governor was vague and had little in terms of policy or ideas that would actually help control or manage what the Governor has herself termed a “crisis”.
“The Governor has failed for too long to address the migrant issue, and because of that, the problem will continue to grow. The announcement was an attempt by Hochul to deflect, distract and discourage any criticism of her own policy failures that helped create the crisis,” said McLaughlin.
“The migrant crisis is directly due to the failure of sanctuary city and open border policies supported by politicians like Kathy Hochul, and she needs to recognize that fact,” continued McLaughlin.
“Kathy Hochul, Eric Adams and many others supported these policies. Well, the migrants were invited to come to sanctuary cities like New York City and Buffalo, and now, they are arriving,” he added.
“For the governor today say that she has merely asked the Biden administration to help migrants be allowed to work and for more financial aid falls far, far short of what she needs to be doing. She did not talk about implementing a simple but effective screening process for migrants seeking asylum nor did she call for a shutdown of our borders to stop an out of control flow. She is failing to take the steps our state needs to avoid being overrun,” McLaughlin noted.
Hochul herself said today that over 100,000 migrants have arrived in the state. She is now in negotiations to use the huge Floyd Bennett Airport in Brooklyn to house migrants. McLaughlin said he believes other state-owned properties including colleges and armories are also being considered by the state.
“The failure by the state or promote common-sense policies has turned a problem into a crisis. The continued inaction by the Governor means the migrant problem will grow and affect even more communities across our state and the health, safety and quality of life of our residents,” said McLaughlin.