New York City officials are reacting to a bombshell new report by The Post that shows an alarming 58,626 migrants with felony records or facing criminal charges are freely roaming the Big Apple, with some 670,000 in total across the country.
Out of the 759,218 illegal border-crossers who now call the five boroughs home, 7.7% were either previously convicted of crimes or had criminal charges pending, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data.
But instead of rounding up and deporting tens of thousands of known criminals, critics say the city has rolled out the red carpet with its asylum policies, providing free lodgings, money for food and even one-way plane tickets anywhere in the world.
Meanwhile, politicians told The Post they’re reaching their breaking point with the generous giveaways and lax enforcement taking place under NYC’s sanctuary city policies, and laying blame at the feet of state and federal officials.
“Kathy Hochul said she’d be the first one to call ICE if a migrant broke the law — she has over 58,000 phone calls to make,” Rep. Mike Lawler — who’s weighing a run for governor — told The Post.
“Kathy Hochul must immediately end New York’s sanctuary state status and fully cooperate with ICE to ensure the safety and well being of all New Yorkers.”
Hochul, for her part, stood by existing policies in the Empire State.
“Governor Hochul will continue enforcing State policy, which protects law-abiding immigrants while ensuring violent criminals are held accountable,” spokesperson Avi Small said.
Mayor Eric Adams has frequently called for sanctuary city rules to be loosened so migrants “suspected” of serious crimes could be turned over to ICE.
However, Hizzoner has thrown his hands up claiming he lacks the political support of the City Council that would be needed to change the controversial laws that prohibit NYC law enforcement from cooperating with immigration officials’ investigations.
“The number of migrant criminals is astronomical and frightening,” said New York Conservative Party chairman Gerard Kassar, a Dyker Heights, Brooklyn resident.
He said “enough of this crap” about New York’s sanctuary rules that coddle criminals and refuse to cooperate with the feds.
“Sanctuary policies are counterproductive and make New York and America unsafe. We need to end this insanity of the Biden years. New York City and New York State have propped up these failed policies,” he told The Post.
This sentiment wasn’t limited to those on the right politically.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat whose district encompasses parts of Nassau County and Queens, was forthright about the problem and seemed amenable to working with Trump and incoming border czar Tom Homan to solve it.
“I support the deportation of criminals and will work with the incoming administration to accomplish that goal. We must also secure the border, fix the broken asylum system and modernize the legal immigration system,” he told The Post.
The burden of the status quo is being unevenly borne by members of the NYPD, who have grappled with the sudden influx of unknown migrants — some with violent criminal histories — flooding city streets.
“The majority of the people we arrest. It’s even more frustrating because a lot of them are repeat offenders and they just get let out of jail to commit more crimes and victimize the hard-working people who live in the area,” a Queens cop told The Post.
But migrants themselves shared a different story.
A migrant man who sells food outside The Roosevelt Hotel — which has been turned into a shelter for asylum-seekers costing the city hundreds of millions of dollars — declined to give his name, but said from his perspective the new arrivals get a bad rap.
“There are thousands of people in this city and thousands of them commit crimes. There are many migrants who commit crimes too, but anything bad that happens here they blame it on the migrants,” he said, claiming he and his cohorts are often turned into “scapegoats.”
