Continued concern of a federal shutdown impacting migrant crisis
ALBANY, NY (WENY)-- Gov. Kathy Hochul continues to express concern about a potential federal shutdown impacting the migrant crisis in New York.
“We’re trying to give migrants a chance to work now, and if the Department of Labor is not full functioning and the coordination that's required from different agencies isn’t functioning, it’s going to have an effect,” she said.
Gov. Hochul said she will continue to allocate state resources such as national guard to help with response and case management.
Monday, she announced an additional 150 members of the New York national guard, bringing the total to 2,200 national guard handling this issue, 250 of which are solely dedicated to case management.
The Governor said case management is an important part of response to this issue.
“We don’t have a lot of control about the front door, that is literally the boarder with the South with Mexico and we know what’s happening there. But what we can do is make sure that back door out of the shelters is open wider and sooner, so case management is the path to do that,” she said.
Gov. Hochul, expressed frustration with Republican congressional members. She said there is potential to solve this issue, but they have to pass resources.
“They don’t want to see this solved. They do not want this solved because it is a great political talking point for them. They think they’re scoring points but basically, they’re undermining our institutions. The shutdown just means that you don’t function properly and we’re a better country than that,” said Hochul.