Governor asks SUNY schools to assess room for undocumented asylum seekers
Gov. Kathy Hochul says New York City is at capacity with undocumented asylum seekers.
"So yes, we're going to need help in other places in the state, without a doubt," says Governor Hochul.
And this could mean more than just SUNY schools.
"I said find all available state properties. Let's analyze them, let's see whether they're temporary short term, whether they can be longer term. Clearly SUNY campus lends itself to temporary help. But long term, we have to have it free by August. What happens in August?" says the governor.
"Well, it seems like a way of certainly subverting home rule and local enforcement," says Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr.
County Executive, Anthony Picente, and his counterparts in Herkimer and Otsego Counties, issued emergency orders, forbidding county shelters and hotels from accepting undocumented asylum seekers whose needs they say their counties can't meet, stemming from a problem they didn't create.
"The question then comes, who feeds them? Who takes care of them? Where does that money come from? That's a big concern," says Picente.
"This is a total, abject lack of leadership on behalf of the governor and the mayor of the City of New York. A lot of this is caused from the policies they put in place. They made themselves sanctuary cities and sanctuary states," says Senator Joseph Griffo.
Senator Griffo says he, Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon and Oneida County Executive Picente might have more to say about this, possibly as soon as Friday.
