Hochul: I’ll Work with Trump to Remove Criminals, Not Employed Immigrants

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Briefing,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said she would assist the Trump administration with deporting violent criminals from her state, but not employed immigrants seeking asylum.

Hochul said, “I will work with the Trump Administration to remove the people he said he was going after. I will help you get the criminals out of here, the ones who are violent criminals who are hurting other people, the human traffickers, the people who are dealing in drugs, people with guns. I want them gone. I’ll help you, but don’t take the home health care aides, the 160 who are going to lose their jobs that I met today and talk to. They’ll lose their jobs and they lose their status. You know what that means there’s 160 vulnerable New Yorkers who are going to lose their caregivers. The people who work in the restaurants and hospitality, let them get jobs, pay their taxes, be part of our communities like my grandpa was a migrant farm worker. Everybody comes and starts out in struggles but you know what? Over time it works. It’s the American dream.”

She added, “Again, we will help the Trump administration, we have been doing this for years, get rid of the true criminals. But coming here to seek asylum, as they have for the last few years, or coming with temporary protected status, like 300,000 Venezuelans did and people from Haiti, they had legal status when they came. So when you take it away once they’re here, it’s just like a cruel joke on them. So they’re not the criminals. Let’s find them a legal pathway. Let’s give them work authorization.”

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