Hochul: NY Migrant Problem ‘Because of the Border Situation’ — We Want Money in Ukraine Package and Work Permits

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Spectrum News NY1’s “Inside City Hall,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) stated that New York’s migrant crisis “is a federal problem. People are coming here because of the border situation and people’s desire to seek asylum.” And said New York needs more money through an attachment to the package for Ukraine funding, land from the federal government, and to give migrants work permits.

Hochul said that the state and New York City need, “One, more money. Now, I always can use more money, and I believe they’ll be putting in a request for supplemental dollars in a package that also includes funding for Ukraine. This is what I learned yesterday. We’ll see whether that materializes. And we need the Republicans to get on board with that. Secondly, we’ve asked them for space, identify all the DOD, Department of Defense, and GSA properties that they have their hands on.”

She added, “But we’ve got a real challenge on our hands, and we do not want to have people having to be in the streets of New York. I literally sat down with the mayor once again this morning, talked to him last night. We are joined together in solving this. First of all, it is a federal problem. People are coming here because of the border situation and people’s desire to seek asylum. But what is the missing link here, Errol — and this could change everything — if we could get legal work status, temporary protected status, for example, people coming from, let’s say, Venezuela, treat them as if we treat — as we treat the people from Afghanistan and Ukraine and Cuba and Haiti. They have an expedited work process opportunity.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett