Lawler Sets the Record Straight After Hochul Accuses Republicans of Not Taking Action With Regard to Illegal Immigrant Crisis

By Mindy Cohn

In response to  Director of State Operations and Infrastructure Kathryn Garcia's letter on Sunday representing Governor Kathy Hochul and addressed to the nine congressional representatives of New York State claiming that they have "taken no action" to help manage the national migrant crisis," Congressman Mike Lawler issued the following blistering response on X. 

"For starters, I reached out numerous times to the Governor about the migrant crisis, especially when NYC Mayor Adams tried to send unvetted adult male migrants to my district. Not only was she unresponsive for long periods of time, she did nothing to stop the insanity and worse, is using billions of taxpayer money to provide free housing, healthcare, education, clothing, and food to illegal immigrants while NYers are struggling to make ends meet. 

"Second, we passed HR2 — the strongest border security measure to ever pass the House — back in May of last year. Chuck Schumer failed to do anything about it for going on 9 months. Not only is Governor Hochul not supportive of it, she never called on Schumer to do anything about the border and simply demanded more money from the feds. 

"Third, no one has actually seen text of the proposed bipartisan legislation being negotiated in the Senate. Usually, you actually try to read legislation before making definitive statements and declarations. But more to the point, final negotiations will be between the House and the Senate, especially in a divided government. "Fourth, when Joe Biden was sending migrants to Westchester County airport on midnight flights, Governor Hochul said and did nothing about it. Only 20% of the migrants coming to NY are a result of the Texas and Florida governors. Why is Governor Hochul silent on the Biden administration sending tens of thousands of migrants to NY? 

"Fifth, not once has Governor Hochul ever asked to meet with the Speaker and the Majority members of NY's delegation to discuss this situation — and in fact, has only met with the entire NY delegation once, early last year, as a general discussion."

"With that in mind, I would like to welcome Governor Kathy Hochul to come to Washington to meet with my Republican colleagues and me to discuss the crisis at our Southern border as well as New York's disastrous response to it, its sanctuary state and city policies, the proposal to cut state school aid, the fact that illegal immigrants can assault law enforcement officers and be released, and the billions in taxpayer money it is spending to provide free services to illegal immigrants." 

And while on Saturday, Garcia proudly identified the work that Hochul has done on a state level, boasting of how well NYS has managed the flow of 170,000 migrants at a cost of $2 billion to date of State funds, Lawler posted the following take on X.  

"Governor Kathy Hochul cuts foundation aid to 46% of schools in New York; she's forking over billions to Eric Adams so he can… give away $53 million in pre-paid credit cards to migrants? Totally absurd."

Hochul has yet to respond.