By The Opinion
Nov 27, 2024, 7:41 PM EST
After President-elect Donald Trump promised mass deportations of millions of immigrants across the country, Governor Kathy Hochul indicated that New York state will cooperate at least to some extent with federal immigration authorities.
That is, Hochul said that while he supports legal immigrants, including asylum seekerswould be “the first” to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants who break the law.
In such a context, two of the main pro-immigrant organizations “Se Hace Camino Nueva York” and the “Immigration Coalition” accused Hochul of “playing into Trump’s atrocious agenda.”
“This is a shocking lack of leadership by Governor Hochul. New York is home to immigrants from almost every country in the world, “Many of them are terrified due to threats from the incoming Trump administration,” Natalia Aristizábal, co-director of Se Hace Camino, said in a statement.
Aristizábal stated that New Yorkers deserve a leader who defends immigrants, “not one who is only capable of using divisive language at a time when visionary leadership is needed.”
He noted that instead of intensifying his efforts to reassure immigrants and assure them that they will be protected from “the horrors of family separation,” Hochul is “falling into the game of Trump’s egregious agenda and continuing to demonize communities that already disproportionately bear the brunt of police violence.”
While the executive director of the Coalition, which brings together more than 200 organizations, highlighted that it is necessary for New York’s elected officials to “defend all our immigrant neighbors.”
Keep reading:
• Trump assures that mass deportations are not “a question of price”
• Massachusetts police will not collaborate with Trump’s mass deportations
• They warn that Trump promises mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act