There was a New York elected official making news in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, and it wasn’t one of the usual suspects.
City Council member and Republican Minority Leader Joe Borelli of Staten Island was in D. C. testifying before the House’s Homeland Security Committee about New York’s migrant crisis. He spoke to WNYC’s Janae Pierre about his testimony.
An interview transcript is available below. It was lightly edited for clarity.
Pierre: So, what were you hoping to convey to Congress yesterday by testifying?
Borelli: Well, I was hoping to get the message across how much money the city of New York is spending to address what amounts to a failure of federal policy at the southern border.
Gov. Kathy Hochul was on CNN last night, and she said, “We have to get the word out. That when you come to New York, we’re not going to have more hotel rooms. We don’t have capacity. So we have to also message properly that we’re at our limit. If you’re going to leave your country, go somewhere else.” That doesn’t sound that different from what you and other New York Republicans are saying. In fact, many on the Hill yesterday invoked the very same concerns expressed by Mayor [Eric] Adams. So isn’t there actually a good degree of bipartisan agreement on this issue? That New York can’t afford to house increasing numbers of migrants indefinitely and in the meantime, you want the federal government to pay for it.
Yes, because Mayor Adams has been living in reality for about six months now, and it’s great that the governor has come on board and discovered that the problem is actually far too costly and far too strenuous on our housing resources and non profit resources in the city. We got to this point because, unlike what she’s saying now, the welcome mat was open for this population of people for many months, and there was encouragement of people to come here. Now we’ve reached a point where we’re saturated and we just can’t afford it and don’t have the space.
Given Republicans…
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