As New York State’s legislative session draws to a close, Democrats in Albany continue passing legislation that will further incentivize illegal immigration at a time when President Trump and the responsible members of Congress are desperately pursuing solutions to fix our broken immigration system and stem the unsustainable flow of illegal border crossings. Earlier this session, Governor Cuomo and the Democrats’ leadership in the legislature granted free tuition assistance to illegal immigrants, including some who have been in our state for as little as 30 days. Shocking to most New Yorkers is that lifelong residents and taxpayers of our state with household incomes of over $80,000 do not qualify for the state’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). Neither do our state’s graduate students. Adding further insult to injury is the fact that it wasn’t until my Republican colleagues and I publicly embarrassed the Democrats in the media that they chose to cover the college expenses of the children of members of the U.S. Military who were killed or disabled in the line of duty.
If offering costly giveaways, that most citizens don’t even receive wasn’t enough, the Democrat-controlled State Legislature’s latest efforts to appear pro-immigrant are actually making New Yorkers less safe. To this end they recently reduced the sentencing for illegal immigrants convicted on misdemeanor charges from 365 to 364 days so as to eliminate local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal detainer requests. In addition, a bill was introduced that would turn federal agents into criminals, guilty of contempt of court or making a false arrest, if the apprehension of an illegal immigrant was made on the way to or from a civil court proceeding.