ALBANY – State Republican lawmakers offered advice to their congressional counterparts ahead of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s testimony on Thursday over sanctuary policies – outlining a list of questions to fling at the Democrat.
The GOP legislators sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer ahead of Hochul’s trip to Washington, DC where she’ll be grilled by a congressional panel on the Empire State’s sanctuary laws.
“Governor Hochul’s sanctuary state policies have played a direct role in the ongoing migrant crisis throughout our state, despite bipartisan concern including repeated warnings from New York City Mayor Eric Adams,” Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-Staten Island) wrote in the letter, cosigned by various other New York GOP lawmakers.
“We believe that Governor Hochul must be held accountable for her failure to reverse the state’s sanctuary policies and recklessness with taxpayer dollars,” Tannousis continued.
Hochul is voluntarily appearing before the House committee on Capitol Hill and will testify alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
In their letter, the Republican state lawmakers ask the House Republicans to ask Hochul to outline:
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Why New York continued to accept migrants during the height of the crisis
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The vetting process for migrants and concerns about public safety
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A shady $432 million no-bid contract awarded to DocGo to help mitigate the crisis
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Her justification for roughly $4 billion the state has spent dealing with migrants
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Why some municipalities weren’t reimbursed with costs associated with the migrants
Tannousis said he wants the House Oversight committee to follow through after Hochul’s testimony to deliver “accountability.”
The governor has tried to navigate a vague middle ground when it comes to the state’s sanctuary policy, which is still based on a 2017 executive order issued by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is now running for mayor of New York City.
Hochul had promised specifics and clarity over her guidance on how New York would work with federal immigration authorities. Instead, her office only provided a list of four broad categories of situations that would trigger state law enforcement to work with the feds, such as if ICE has a judicial warrant or when relevant to investigating another crime committed in New York.
Hochul had previously said she was “happy to go down” to DC for the hearing.
“I’ll tell them our policy in the state of New York is not to use state resources, our state police, to enforce the civil infractions,” Hochul said earlier this year.
