November 3, 2024

Hochul turns deaf ear to question of helping NYC handle migrant crisis

Gov. Hochul has pointedly ignored a question about solving the Big Appleā€™s mounting migrant crisis ā€” and refused to say Monday whether sheā€™s trying to relocate some asylum-seekers to other cities upstate.

During a brief Q&A with reporters before marching in the Columbus Day Parade on Manhattanā€™s Fifth Avenue, The Post asked Hochul if sheā€™d followed up on US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrandā€™s plan to relieve the pressure of new arrivals.


Hochul was looking right at the reporter and her eyes widened when she heard the question.

But instead of responding, the Democratic governor ā€” who faces Republican challenger Lee Zeldin in the Nov. 8 election ā€” turned to another reporter whoā€™d already asked an apparently prearranged question about Sundayā€™s shooting outside Zeldinā€™s house on Long Island.

After answering that reporterā€™s second question, Hochul didnā€™t take any others and headed to the parade.

Last month, The Post exclusively reported that Gillibrand reached out to Hochulā€™s office to seek her support to move migrants from the city to underpopulated areas upstate.

The plan would allow those communities to use the new residents to qualify for pork-barrel federal funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Assemblyman Colin Schmitt (R-Washingtonville), whoā€™s running for Congress against US Rep. Pat Ryan (D-Kingston), said Gillibrandā€™s plan was ā€œso egregious and dangerous that even Kathy Hochul is hiding from this issue.ā€

ā€œBetween the secret migrant flights landing at Orange County Airport and this disastrous proposal, the illegal immigration crisis that is being exported to the Hudson Valley has pushed our local communities to a breaking point,ā€ he said.

Schmitt also vowed that, if elected, Gillibrandā€™s plan would only be implemented ā€œover my dead body.ā€

Despite her deaf ear Monday, Hochul claimed last week on Bloomberg TV to be consumed by the migrant crisis and attacked the Republican governors whoā€™ve relocated them to Democratic areas to protest President Bidenā€™s controversial border policy.

ā€œWe have been working almost hourly with the City of New York since the immigrants ā€” or the migrants, started arriving,ā€ she said.

ā€œAnd itā€™s something that weā€™re working ā€” first of all, to say that human beings should not be used as political pawns.ā€

Hochul added, ā€œOnce they come here, they need a place to stay, a transitional time, usually upwards of a week in order to get, you know, their feet on the ground and to find a place to live.

ā€œSo this is just a temporary situation but, absolutely, weā€™re working with the federal government as well,ā€ she said.

ā€œIā€™ve raised this with the White House, that this calls for a federal solution,ā€ Hochul said.

ā€œLetā€™s look at federal facilities, federal staff to help supplement the city and the state is doing the same, trying to lend our support in site selections and making sure that, you know, this does not get out of control, that we can manage this with the scale we have right now.ā€

On Friday, Mayor Adams declared a state of emergency over the influx of asylum-seeking migrants, saying they were about to push the cityā€™s shelter population to an all-time high and cost taxpayers $1 billion for housing and social services.

ā€œThis is unsustainable,ā€ Adams said.

As of Thursday, City Hall estimated that 17,400 migrants have flooded into the Big Apple since May.

While marching in the parade Monday, Adams said that another 1,800 showed up this past weekend but he declined to discuss the situation further while getting into his official vehicle afterward.

A Gillibrand spokesperson didnā€™t return a request for comment.

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