The full extent of the impacts to New York state from the unprecedented migrant crisis is still being measured. Four years of open-border policies and millions of undocumented individuals entering the country took a heavy toll. Even now, as President Donald J. Trump and his administration prioritize identifying and fixing the problems, we have a […]
The full extent of the impacts to New York state from the unprecedented migrant crisis is still being measured. Four years of open-border policies and millions of undocumented individuals entering the country took a heavy toll. Even now, as President Donald J. Trump and his administration prioritize identifying and fixing the problems, we have a long way to go before this damage is undone.
The Assembly Minority Conference [during the week of March 10-14] reinforced our call to finally restore order and advance legislation that directly addresses New York’s misguided sanctuary status that turned the state into a prime destination for illegal immigrants. We were fortunate to be joined [on March 12] by “border czar” Tom Homan — a native New Yorker who previously served as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — to lend his insights and share his experiences. Our message is simple: bring back collaboration between local agencies and federal-government partners to clean up this mess.
We hope to accomplish this with two pieces of legislation. The first is “Laken’s Law,” named after 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, who was tragically murdered by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant who was previously arrested and released in Queens. The second is a repeal of the state’s Green Light Law in counties around our northern border, which grants driver’s licenses to undocumented individuals and prohibits the Department of Motor Vehicles from sharing information with federal immigration officials.
As I stated during our press conference, public safety should not be a matter of partisan politics. The opposition to these proposed changes coming from Gov. Kathy Hochul and her legislative allies is frustrating. Rhetoric about opening the border for humanitarian purposes has been exposed tenfold for what it is, a political ploy and an excuse to waste taxpayer money with service providers that consistently failed to do their jobs. These policies greatly diminished the quality of life and safety of both migrants and legal residents, and one need only look at the shape New York City is in for proof.
Mr. Homan’s presence at the Capitol triggered the typical hysterics from the out-of-touch progressives, who held not one, but two, panicked press conferences to “respond” to the border czar’s visit. Having apparently learned nothing from national elections, they remained steadfast in their defense of sanctuary policies that helped get Homan’s boss elected last November.
The governor and legislative Democrats have continued to show they are more concerned with obstructionist governance than problem solving. I implore them to reverse course and restore cooperation with ICE and other federal law-enforcement agencies. New Yorkers should no longer have to subsidize an immigration policy that compromises their own safety, and they never should have been forced to do so in the first place.
William (Will) A. Barclay, 56, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.
Will Barclay
