Officials on either side of the aisle in county government hold opposing views of the immigration crisis as the governor and mayor of New York look to relocate thousands of migrants that have come to the city from all over the world. Attention was riveted on the issue after Republicans in the legislature voted to hire a special counsel to explore legal options and an executive order from the county executive to set up a committee to manage any future influx of aliens, moves that resulted in Mayor Eric Adams suing the county, as well as Riverhead Town and other jurisdictions throughout the state that have moved to stop them.
Republican Nick Caracappa, the legislature’s majority leader, expressed the prevailing view of his caucus that Suffolk taxpayers cannot afford a rush of new arrivals while many current residents, among the highest taxed in the nation, are already struggling with food and housing needs. The impact on schools, emergency response, and other services would be enormous, he stressed, and both residents and the migrants would suffer.
“This is mismanagement at the top levels of government,” Caracappa said. “They made false promises to these individuals and encouraged them to keep coming here to America with Sanctuary Cities and other policies. We simply cannot provide for them. We are having enough trouble providing for our own residents, our own tax-paying citizens, our veterans and people that have mental health issues. They're walking the streets right now. We have people starving, families, children, begging on roadways. There are just simply not enough jobs, there's not enough housing, there's not enough food, there's not enough of everything to sustain such an influx of people.”
Legislator Jason Richberg, the Democrat minority leader, shared the view of Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone that the county should be accepting of the immigrants while taking a measured approach on how they can be accommodated. “Putting politics over people is not right,” he said, arguing for more federal support to integrate the new arrivals.”This is not a New York City, Suffolk County thing. There's a huge breakdown of communication and infrastructure when it comes to our immigration policy. And I'm not talking about building walls. I'm talking about the fact that we don't have the infrastructure to help folks become citizens. That's not right,” he said, adding, “I think we have a duty as Americans and as New Yorkers to help in any way we can.”
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| Legislator Nick Caracappa File Photo |
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| Legislator Jason Richberg File Photo |
“I’m not a racist for doing my due diligence to make sure that these people have some semblance of a life that is being promised, when they do not,” Caracappa continued. “They're allowing people to cross the border, unvetted, unchecked, unhoused, unfed, unclothed, unvaccinated. It is, quite frankly, a huge mistake. Anybody we take in going forward should have a future ahead of them; they should have something to look forward to, some way to earn a living, some way to contribute to society. I don’t think that’s asking too much from our immigration policy.”
With regard to the city’s lawsuit against Suffolk, Caracappa said, “We should sue them right back. We're not breaking any laws here. We have a thing called legal immigration. We have something that's called becoming a United States citizen. So you follow the rules; we'll follow the rules.”
Richberg likened the influx of migrants to that of a flood. “If the water was coming, what you're supposed to do is divert it into multiple different angles and into multiple different areas,” he explained. “We should have a cohesive approach, which is what the governor is asking for, that we take into account their needs; Are there locations for them to eat, for education? Is there industry where folks can work? What are the skills of the folks who are coming in? These are the questions that we should be asking so we can take a cohesive approach to this. It's not just bring them some place. That's inhumane.”
County officials recently confirmed after a conference call with Gov. Kathy Hochul that there are currently about 72,000 immigrants in New York City transported there from primarily the Southern border where, Republicans charge, the immigration system has completely broken down. People from over 120 countries have flooded into Mexico where they are paying cartels and other operators to get them into the United States, they said. From there, they are transported all over the country, especially to New York, which had billed itself as a Sanctuary City. Hochul’s budget, approved by the state legislature last month, provides more than a billion dollars in state funds for migrant support, money that both sides say is not nearly enough.