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Channeling former Republican President Donald Trump last week, Hochul told migrants to “go somewhere else” as she tried to dissuade more asylum-seekers from traveling to the state amid another surge of immigration along the U.S.–Mexico border.
In remarks during a CNN appearance, Hochul said New York has “reached capacity” for accepting new migrants and urged them to apply for asylum before leaving their countries or seek shelter in other states if they arrive.
“If you’re going to leave your country, go somewhere else,” Hochul said. “We have to let the word out that when you come to New York, you’re not going to have more hotel rooms.”
That was unlikely to disuade unsympathetic red states like Texas and Florida, which long ago reached exceeded comfort level, from continuing to bus them northward to the self-declared sanctuary states, which long crowed about their tolerance and refused to comply with the enforcement of federal immigration laws until the Biden administration’s far-left open borders policies became too much even for them.
Hochul also said she supports efforts to update or suspend New York City’s “right to shelter” law, which requires the city to provide housing, food and other necessities for homeless individuals, regardless of their immigration status.
She said it was never intended to be a “universal right or obligation on the city to have to house literally the entire world.”
Hochul’s remarks appeared to be a shift in her stance on immigration for the Democrat who has previously defended New York’s “sanctuary” state status and its storied history of accepting large numbers of asylum seekers.
She has also pushed for work authorization for migrants and lobbied President Joe Biden to extend the temporary protected status to tens of thousands of Venezuelan asylum seekers that allows them to work in the U.S. legally. Critics say policies are encouraging more migrants to enter the country illegally.
New York City has had an influx of more than 116,000 asylum seekers over the past year amid a surge of immigration along the U.S.–Mexico border. The surge coincided with the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 policy that required migrants to stay in Mexico while requesting asylum, which expired in May.
Hochul’s comments echo those previously made by New York Mayor Eric Adams, a fellow Democrat, who in June began distributing flyers on the U.S.–Mexico border as part of a new marketing campaign to dissuade new arrivals from settling in the city.
Adams has criticized the Biden administration for not doing enough to secure the southern border, and has said the migrant crisis will “destroy” New York City if the federal government doesn’t provide more funding and resources to the city.
New York Republicans have long called on Hochul to rescind the state’s sanctuary designation and New York City’s right to shelter law, saying the policies are drawing more migrants to the state.
“New York City’s leaders chose to be a sanctuary city, putting out a welcome mat for every migrant who arrives in the country,” a group of state GOP lawmakers wrote to Hochul earlier this month. “They chose virtue signaling over good government policy, and so must bear the consequences.”
Last week, several Republican congressional lawmakers filed a lawsuit seeking to block New York City from using Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field or other federally owned sites in the Gateway National Recreation Area to provide temporary housing for migrants.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and other GOP lawmakers have also called on Democrats in the U.S. Senate to pass a border security bill approved by the House earlier this year.
