ALBANY – A new bill seeking to get a handle on New York’s growing migrant crisis would require state officials to vet and monitor migrants sent to New York from the U.S. Southern Border.
Assemblyman Matt Slater, a Republican who represents parts of the Hudson Valley, where Mayor Eric Adams has sent migrants in recent days, sponsored the measure in hopes it would bring some order to the states’ seemingly chaotic response to the flow of immigrant arrivals.
“It’s not denying the state’s responsibility to helping those who are seeking asylum, but it is providing security checks and balances and scrutiny to make sure that we’re protecting New Yorkers at the same time as protecting those seeking asylum here in our state,” Slater told The Post.
The “common-sense” legislation comes as New York City grapples with a growing deluge of migrants that has pushed the Big Apple to its fiscal breaking point.
The situation is expected to worsen in upcoming weeks following the Thursday expiration of a federal rule that had allowed immigration officials to expel people with relative ease after they entered the country illegally.
The state Office for New Americans would conduct background checks on future arrivals seeking refugee status in cooperation with state and local law enforcement agencies like the NYPD, according to legislative language.
Migrants would also have to give fingerprints and accept monitoring by the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance for one year in order to recent taxpayer-funded assistance while they await a resolution in their asylum cases, according to the legislation.
“You can’t just continue to hand out blank checks when it comes to providing taxpayer-funded services without some kind of checks and balances in place,” Slater, whose district includes parts of Westchester and Putnam counties, told The Post.
He added that he would amend the current bill language to keep monitoring in place until asylum cases are resolved.
Slater’s proposal follows outrage from Hudson Valley officials who have opposed efforts by New York City Mayor Eric Adams to bus migrants, many from impoverished countries like Venezuela, to their communities.
More than 60,000 migrants have arrived in the five boroughs since Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, and some Democratic officials, began sending people to New York last summer in order to shift the burden of accommodating them to blue states with immigration-friendly policies.
Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have called on President Joe Biden to increase aid to the state while somehow wrangling a deal with Congress to overhaul the dysfunctional immigration system at large.
But neither Adams nor Hochul leader has released any comprehensive plan for dealing with the crisis if Biden fails to act, according to Slater.
The Slater bill would require the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to develop a state plan to fill what Slater called a gap in the government response to the migrants’ arrival.
“There is just no legitimate plan in place to deal with the crisis,” the freshman legislator said.
“This is just a real failure of the federal government and President Biden’s failure to secure the border, but we can’t just shrug our shoulders on it, and I think we have to put forward a legitimate proposal from the state’s perspective to protect taxpayers and protect New Yorkers.”
Dozens of Republican colleagues have signed on as co-sponsors to the legislation, which Slater said will have a state Senate sponsor soon.
His idea faces an uphill climb in Albany where Democrats have supermajorities in both chambers with less than a month to go in the legislative session ending June 8.
But Slater hopes the escalating crisis might inspire them to take action on the bill.
“On the merits alone, should be brought to the floor,” he said.
“It’s not denying the state’s responsibility to helping those who are seeking asylum, but it is providing security checks and balances and scrutiny to make sure that we’re protecting New Yorkers at the same time as protecting those seeking asylum here in our state.”