State Leaders Faced With Calls for Special Legislative Session on Migrants

File Photo

Calling the state legislature back in session to take action on the migrant crisis that has befallen New York is being bandied back and forth by lawmakers on opposite sides of the issue.

Democrats, whose sanctuary policy has brought up 110,000 migrants from the southern border, want to streamline the work permit process and lobby the federal government for the $12 billion Mayor Eric Adams says they’ll cost over the next two years.

Republicans want bills calling on President Biden to secure the border, require a state audit of money already spent, and a program to create a registry of the migrants who have come here illegally.

As Adams struggles to deal with a crisis he said will “destroy” New York, his Democrat colleagues want to approve laws to force the suburbs to accept migrants relocated from the city. Even members of their own party are bristling against the idea as local residents don’t want the migrant problems Adams is having transferred to their neighborhoods.

Also on the table for a potential migrant special session is a Republican bill repealing New York’s status as a sanctuary state.

As pressure builds, there’s no word yet from Gov. Hochul or the leaders of the state assembly or senate on a special session.