NYC Mayor Adams, Gov. Hochul Trade Barbs While NY Dems Worry Over Migrant Crisis

NYC Mayor Adams, Gov. Hochul Trade Barbs While NY Dems Worry Over Migrant Crisis

I do not even know where to begin regarding New York and the migrant crisis.

NYC Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul

Cat fight!

A lawyer representing Hochul sent a 12-page scathing letter to Adams over his handling of the migrant crisis in NYC and in response to a list of requests the city sent to a state judge in Manhattan.

The city’s top request asked the state to “implement a State-wide relocation program to resettle groups of New Arrivals throughout the State’s counties in proportion to the counties respective share of the State population.”

Adams sued 30 counties that issued executive orders to stop accepting migrants.

Quite a few places in New York, even those dominated by Democrats, won’t accept more migrants. Erie County stopped after two alleged rapes by migrants in one week at a hotel housing migrants.

Hochul’s lawyer promised Adams the administration “will continue to be a strong partner to the City.”

However, Hochul and others expect “the City will fully utilize the space and other resources that the State has already offered or provided to the City.”

Then the lawyer listed all the ways Hochul’s administration has helped NYC while spelling out how it thinks Adams has failed.

New York isn’t happy NYC hasn’t “properly managed” the funds given to help with the migrants.

Hochul also slammed the city over asking for more help to move migrants because Adams and his administration don’t communicate:

These ongoing discussions have resulted in support from several counties and localities outside of the City. The State’s efforts will continue, but the City’s affirmative cooperation, coordination, and communication with the State, and with other counties and localities, is necessary to this endeavor.

A lack of coordination from the City to date has impeded the State’s ability to foster productive relationships and discussions , including with the counties and localities that have offered to help. In particular, the City chose to send migrants to counties and localities outside of the City with-little- or-no notice to or coordination with the State or those counties and localities. That has created opposition and has led to litigation that might have been mitigated or avoided if the City had acted in concert with the State and with the counties and localities where it sent migrants. Moreover, the City’s failure to inform the State of critical incidents that have occurred in shelters outside of the City has compounded these difficulties.

Long Island Leader Said No to Using Old NHL Arena as Shelter

Speaking of shelters…

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman won’t allow NYC to use the old Nassau Coliseum as a shelter or anywhere else in the county:

“There is no plan for anywhere in Nassau County to house any migrants, including but not limited to, the Nassau Coliseum,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, said.

“Nassau County is not a sanctuary county,” he added at Thursday’s press conference. “We are not inviting immigrants and migrants into the county that are here from south of the border and not using the proper and normal channels that have been used in the past.

“Nassau County views this as a federal problem. Not a local problem. And there is no plan whatsoever to house any migrants within the borders of Nassau County. We want to make that clear because there’s been speculation about that. We’ve gotten a lot of constituent calls.

“It is not going to happen here in Nassau County,” Blakeman insisted. “I’ve also been in contact with local school districts who have reiterated to me that they do not want a migrant program in Nassau County. Basically, their classrooms are full. They haven’t budgeted for any additional students, and they haven’t done any planning for additional students. In addition to that, with respect to social services, we are already operating at full capacity in social services, and we do not want to overburden our social services or any of the services we have.

“We also don’t want people here who haven’t been properly vetted because — as we’ve seen in other areas throughout the United States and here in New York State — there have been crime problems as a result of not vetting the people who were coming across the border.”

NY Democrats Panic

The New York Democrats fear the migrant crisis will come back and bite them in the butt.

The tipping point might be the feud between Hochul and Adams.

I laughed when I heard Hochul saying, “This is nothing anyone could have anticipated and it’s been an enormous challenge.”

Lady, how do you think the small border towns feel? I want to say the same thing to Adams.

Most of the Democrats aim the criticism at Hochul. She is the governor, after all:

“The reality is that when you’re governor, it’s going to be on you, whether you choose to engage or not,” Doug Forand, a Democratic political consultant, said. “It’s not surprising she doesn’t want to wander into this particular minefield, because it’s really ugly, but in the absence of some form of action, she’s going to have to take those stronger positions soon.”

—

“She could take charge of the situation and limit the ability of local governments to create their own policy around migrant issues,” said Joshua Goldfein, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society. “She’s the chief executive of the state, so she should assert her authority to impose a statewide policy.”

“That’s what Andrew Cuomo would have done,” he added, referring to the former governor’s often eager approach to crisis management. (Mr. Cuomo’s former top aide, Melissa DeRosa, criticized Ms. Hochul this week for a “lack of leadership and sheer incompetence.”)

But the crisis could hit the Democrats at the national level:

Howard Wolfson, a former deputy mayor and political adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, described the issue as a “ticking time bomb” for Democrats, adding that busing migrants upstate could backfire and amplify Republican attacks in competitive races.

“There is no question in my mind that the politics of this is a disaster to Democrats,” he said. “This issue alone has the potential to cost Democrats the House, because it is such a huge issue in New York City and the coverage of it is clearly heard and seen by voters in all of these swing districts in the suburbs.”

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