Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Elise Stefanik joined America's Newsroom to discuss how President Biden's open border policies and New York's "Sanctuary State" policies have created an illegal immigration crisis in New York, jeopardizing the safety and security of every New Yorker and her efforts in Congress to end this crisis and secure the Northern and Southern Borders.
Watch her full interview here.
Highlights of her interview are below:
President Biden, Governor Kathy Hochul, And Mayor Eric Adams Are To Blame For New York’s Illegal Immigration Crisis:
“Well let’s take a step back, Bret, this is a crisis of the Democrats making. We’ve seen a historic surge of, not only our Southern Border, but our Northern Border as well. Over 5.8 million illegal crossings since Joe Biden took office. And New York, including the Governor, Governor Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams welcomed illegal migrants into New York State and into New York City, and now they’re reaping the crises that has been created and the havoc this is causing. Not only do we not have the resources to pay for this, but 82% of New Yorkers say this is a serious issue in New York State. My colleague on Staten Island, Nicole Malliotakis, you just saw the footage, Bret, this is very serious. They’re being housed in our schools. Our healthcare facilities are getting overrun. We need to secure the border. House Republicans have done that, passing the strongest secure the border package in our nation’s history. And yet, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden fail to act.”
House Republicans Passed Legislation That Would Secure Our Northern and Southern Borders:
“As you recall, we passed H.R. 2. It’s the border security package, and we believe we need to secure the border to stem this crisis. And then, we fix our broken, legal immigration system. As one of the constituents from Staten Island said, ‘This is not opposition to legal immigration. It’s opposition to illegal immigration.’ We need to be a country based upon the rule of law. House Republicans have done this. We know what a secure border looks like, and those were the very effective policies of the previous Administration. And those were many of the policies that we included in our bill.”
BAIER: “Yeah, but the problem is, Congresswoman, you don’t have any Democrats signed onto that bill.”
STEFANIK: “And isn't that a shame? Isn't that shameful? They need to show courage. They need to show a political spine to say that this is a border crisis. Joe Biden’s policies are not working. Our policies have caused this and actually work with us to secure the border. That bill was on the floor. It’s pretty telling that every single Democrat voted against it. And this issue in New York State, when we talk about all states are a border state, all communities are a border community, the vast majority of these illegal immigrants are coming across our Southern Border, and yet, we’re talking about New York City. They're trying to transfer these to Upstate New York. It has been a disaster, and Republicans who stood strong against that were smeared by Democrats. Now you see Democrats backpedaling.”
Highlights The Impact of Extreme Democrats’ Open Border Policies:
“We don't have the fiscal resources. New York is a state that’s on the trajectory towards bankruptcy, and we don't have the resources. And what’s really interesting is that this has impacted the rule of law. This has impacted real people’s lives. Kathy Hochul under her leadership and Mayor Adams, they transferred illegal immigrants to Erie County in western New York. There were two very high profile incidents of vicious rapes, and now you see the democrat county executive say he doesn’t want illegal immigrants anymore, when he welcomed them into the community. So, this is very much tied into the crime crisis that we saw in New York State, and voters of all political affiliations know that this is not working and it’s a crisis that Hochul, Mayor Adams, and most importantly, Joe Biden created.”
