With New York City being overwhelmed by illegal immigration, a growing number of concerned residents of Staten Island want to secede from the city.
“The values of New York City are not in line with those of Staten Island and they haven’t been for a long time and that divide is only growing larger,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said in correspondence with the Epoch Times. “There is this very real sense that the city won’t listen to our concerns and that we have reached a boiling point.”
“The people feel like we are on a tugboat attached to the Titanic,” Fossella added. “The people can see that the city is sinking, and unless we are okay with sinking too, there is a need to separate.”
Staten Island has stood out among New York’s five boroughs for its largely conservative population. In 2020, the borough largely voted for former President Donald Trump.
Now, citizens of Staten Island are starting to grow anxious about the flood of illegal aliens reaching the city, which has placed alarming stress on the city’s infrastructure while also raising the city’s crime rate.
“They dump these individuals into our neighborhoods and to my knowledge none of them have been vetted,” declared Fossella. “One of these migrant shelters is located directly across the street from two elementary schools and they just expect the people to take it. Why would we want to take that risk?
“The concern is legitimate. We are not as safe as we should be and the people are fed up.”
According to NYC officials, roughly 100,000 illegal immigrants have entered the city thereby putting pressure on the city government’s resources and services. Mayor Eric Adams has conceded that NYC can’t handle the growing numbers of new illegal aliens and has pushed for the rest of the state to use their resources to absorb these migrants.
“Governor Hochul has been a partner on subway safety, on crime, on a host of things, but I think on this issue the governor is wrong,” Adams said to students during an appearance on August 22 at New York Law School.
“She’s the governor of the state of New York. New York City is in that state. Every county in this state should be part of this.”
Governor Kathy Hochul has resisted the idea of the rest of the state assuming the migrant burden, declaring in a recent speech week that “we cannot and will not force other parts of our state to shelter migrants, nor are we going to be asking these migrants to move to other parts of the state against their will.”
In response to the idea of the rest of the state assuming the migrant housing burden, upstate county leaders have enacted their own emergency orders to halt Adams’ efforts to ship illegal aliens into their communities. The Adams administration has responded by challenging the constitutionality of the emergency orders in court.
The Staten Island secession campaign will face significant challenges. The New York City Council and the State Legislature must ultimately vote in favor of such a move for it to become a reality. As long as Staten Island remains part of NYC, it will continue to be overwhelmed by mass migration. In turn, calls for secession will grow among Staten Island residents.
Whether politicians will follow through with this move is anyone’s guess. Nevertheless, secession may be the only hope for Staten Island residents who desire living in a jurisdiction that has a high standard of living.