By: Jake Smith, Daily Caller News Foundation
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling in additional National Guard members to help manage the state’s escalating migrant crisis.
New York will bring in an additional 150 National Guard members to help control the state’s migrant surge, bringing the new total of members deployed in the state to approximately 2,200, Hochul said during a press conference Monday. New York City has now received well over 100,000 migrants with 10,000 more on the way every month.
Approximately 250 of the 2,200 National Guard deployed in New York will narrowly focus on case management for Venezuelans who came before July 31 to apply for temporary work authorization, according to Hochul. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who arrived in the U.S. before that date are expected to qualify for protection and expedited work permits under the Biden administration.
Hochul, who previously told New York’s suburbs to accept migrants into their communities and to stop being “bigoted,” said on Thursday that incoming migrants need to “go somewhere else,” during an interview with CNN. Hochul’s comments mimic New York City Mayor Eric Adam’s stern warning in early September that the migrant crisis would impact “every community in [the] city,” and would eventually “destroy” the Big Apple.
“If you’re going to leave your country, go somewhere else,” Hochul said during a CNN interview Thursday. “We have to let the word out that when you come to New York, you’re not going to have more hotel rooms… We don’t have capacity, so we have to also message properly.”
Hochul also said she would consider rescinding New York’s “right to shelter” law because it was originally intended for homeless populations. She claimed that the law was never meant to create “an unlimited, universal right or obligation on the city to have to house literally the entire world.”
“We have large hearts. You want to be generous and supportive to people who are experiencing humanitarian crisis, but there is a limit to what we can do,” Hochul said.
Migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border are on track to beat the previous record of more than 2.3 million that were recorded crossing in fiscal year 2022. Approximately 181,000 migrants were apprehended by Border Patrol at the southern border in August alone.
Hochul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Related Story: NYC Announces Budget Cuts After Mayor Says Migrant Crisis ‘Will Destroy’ Big Apple
