Reps. Tenney, Stefanik demand Biden answer for NY migrant surge
Two top Republican congresswomen from New York are demanding that the Biden administration answer questions about secretly transporting migrants across the US — after dozens of Colombian immigrants recently arrived in the small upstate community of Watertown.
“We write following reports that your administration is actively settling migrants in Upstate New York communities,” upstate Reps. Claudia Tenney and Elise Stefanik — the number three Republican in the US House of Representatives — wrote in a Wednesday letter obtained by The Post.
GOP Congressmen Nick Langworthy, Michael Lawler and Marc Molinaro also signed the message.
The lawmakers cited a shocking Post report that over 30 migrants have been living in the city of Jamestown, located in rural Chautauqua County, since late last year.
Most of the migrants traveled to Jamestown on their own after learning about the safety of the city from fellow border-crossers in El Paso, Texas, several had previously told The Post.
But leaders of the city — which only has a reported population of 28,393 people — are worried that the influx of immigrants will quickly overwhelm Jamestown’s local services and infrastructure, especially because neither the migrants nor the city has received additional state or federal aid.
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“[W]e wish to express our outrage at the secrecy with which your administration has and continues to carry out these national relocation operations,” the lawmakers wrote. “This unprecedented influx of migrants into the United States is an obvious sign of your administration’s failed policies at the Southern Border.”
Tenney and Stefanik submitted a list of six demands:
- The number of illegal migrants that were apprehended at the Southern border and relocated to New York by the government since January 2021;
- A full list of which New York counties and municipalities the migrants were sent to and which areas can expect migrants to be sent to in the future;
- Documentation proving executive branch agencies notified New York those counties, municipalities and local law enforcement that migrants would be coming, or an explanation of why the government chose not to do so;
- Information on how the White House is monitoring the status and locations of the migrants they’ve relocated since January 2021;
- The whereabouts of every migrant that has been relocated by the government to New York State since January 2021; and
- A promise that the Biden administration will commit to notifying Tenney and Stefanik’s offices and local officials whenever illegal migrants are relocated to the state.
The pols requested a response from the White House by the end of the month and threatened to take action against the administration if they failed to do so, “including but not limited to withholding additional federal funding.”
“Rather than shifting the burden to the small communities we represent, that are not equipped to handle the influx, the answer is to secure the border,” they said.
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“Already, your current policies have created a humanitarian and national security catastrophe which undermines the rule of law and empowers human traffickers and criminal gangs.”
The White House did not return an immediate request for comment.
The missive comes almost exactly one year after Stefanik submitted a letter to Biden demanding that he stop sending migrants to New York.
The crisis has only accelerated in the past year, especially in New York City.
At least 41,000 migrants have arrived in the Big Apple from the southern border since the spring, according to City Hall.
Mayor Eric Adams has said that housing and providing services to incoming migrants may cost the Big Apple as much as $2 billion as the city planned to open a sixth emergency shelter in Midtown for migrants.
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