Team Trump is slamming New York for accommodating illegal migrants: It’s not World War III, but Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams will do themselves (and their constituents!) a big favor by boosting cooperation with Washington.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi sued New York for limiting that cooperation, citing the state’s Green Light law, which grants driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and bans inquiries into immigration status, requiring a judge’s order for any release of state info.
State officials even tip off drivers if immigration officials request their data.
“Sovereign” states can opt out of immigration enforcement, conceded Bondi, but when “inaction crosses into obstruction, a State breaks the law” — since the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause makes New York law inferior to federal law.
Meanwhile, border czar Tom Homan is “not happy” with Adams’ help so far.
After the two met Thursday, the mayor vowed to issue an executive order letting ICE agents operate on Rikers Island, focusing on “violent criminals and gangs.”
That’s a start.
In fact, Hizzoner has repeatedly said he wants to help nab violent migrant criminals. But he’s constrained by sanctuary laws that the City Council refuses to amend.
Those claim to bar federal agents from public buildings, for example, so the best a recent City Hall memo could do was remind city workers it’s a “federal crime” to “shield” an illegal from “detection” and urge them to cooperate with agents if “you reasonably . . . fear for your safety.”
Homan, understandably, wants more.
Indeed, the new Laken Riley Act boosts federal powers to go after criminal migrants, and so should force the city (and state) to give up even more “sanctuary” ground.
Look, President Donald Trump was elected to clean up President Joe Biden’s migrant disaster, and he’s doing that, in part, by discouraging wannabe-migrants with a crackdown on criminal border-jumpers already here, as well as far tougher enforcement at the border that’s got crossings down to a six-decade low.
Yet open-border lawmakers have turned New York into a migrant sanctuary — protecting even criminally violent ones — in what increasingly has become outright defiance of federal law.
Then again, state and city laws and policies are at odds with New Yorkers’ preferences: A recent Siena poll found a whopping 80% back deportations of illegals who’ve committed crimes.
More broadly, Empire State voters even support Trump’s overall deportation efforts by 48% to 31%
So Hochul needs to square her professed backing for “deporting violent criminals” with her fervent support for the Green Light law — which, ironically, she fiercely opposed two decades ago, as Erie County clerk.
“No way I’m letting federal agents, or Elon Musk’s shadowy DOGE operation, get unfettered access to the personal data of any New Yorker in the [Division of Motor Vehicles] system,” huffed Hochul.
The gov should stand down, unless she wants a war on an issue where her own voters back Trump.
(She should get her “villains” straight, too: DOGE isn’t the one on the DMV front; rather, it’s fighting the city over $80 million in FEMA money used for immigrants.)
Hochul and Adams need to work out their differences with Washington; the gov can take a huge step by rescinding the Cuomo “sanctuary” executive orders, while Adams welcomes ICE back to Rikers Island.
Radicals will scream, but New York voters will stand behind leaders who embrace common sense.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
