The migrant situation in New York is out of control

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and he wanted this opportunity today on Mother’s Day. And Happy Mother’s Day, Governor Cuomo, you have a great mom to talk to the people of our country. Governor Cuomo, there’s so many things happening in our country, in our city, our state, our country. Where would you like to start.

0:30 Speaker 2 Well, first, John, let me say to all the mothers who are listening, Happy Mother’s Day. We appreciate them every day of the year, but this is the one day that we make it a special, a special event. So Happy Mother’s Day. I’m going to be with my mother and We’re going to have a good day. I think, John,

0:48 probably the most personal issue today is the issue of the migrants. What’s happening on the southern border. That is a real debacle. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. And it’s to me it is an aspirational aspirational principle meets a practical reality. Right in theory, everybody wants to believe this is America’s statue of liberty. We

1:14 open our arms, we invite everyone in. In practicality, that is impossible. When I was governed to the socialists wanted to cancel rent. Nobody should have to pay rent. I said, that’s a beautiful idea. Nobody pays rent, but somebody has to pay for the electrics and the heat and the mortgage, etc.

1:33 So you get have a beautiful idea that’s just practically impossible. And what has happened here is two problems. Number One, because the word was Biden was going to reverse the Trump policy for months, you have had people traveling to the border from all sorts of countries, much broader than ever before. It’s not just Mexico, it’s Colombia’s Cube, It, Nicaragua, Pero.

1:57 I spoke to migrants are in New York City now, three months trip from El Salvador when they heard President Biden was going to open the border. So you have this whole back up at the border. And now you had this title forty two expire, which was the only thing holding the floodgates back right. The second problem is

2:22 there was no plan as to what to do with the people who you would let in. Welcome everyone, okay, but you need room at the end, John, where are they going to stay? Governor’s going to pay me?

2:36 Speaker 1 And you believe in immigration, your family or immigrants back to your grandfather I guess, and my family back to my grandfathers. But the rules that we always had. There have to be some checks and balances to know who’s coming in.

2:52 Speaker 2 There has to be checks and balances. There has to be a program to go with the policy. You have to know before you invite people into the country. You have to know that you have the resources to handle it.

3:04 And they didn’t. And now what the Republican governors did was despicable. I mean, I get their point, but what Texas did in Florida did, sending immigrants around the country like there were pawns were really was despicable. But their point was you’re overwhelming the border states, right, and it’s gone to a point where it’s it’s overwhelmed cities all

3:29 across the country. You look at New York City, now, John, what’s happening to New York City and Mayor Eric Adams. It’s one of the major problems that the mayor has, which is really bizarre since immigration is not his problem.

3:46 It’s President Biden’s problem, it’s Governor Holcals problem, but it’s not his problem. I think the mayor did a good job in pointing it out that the president President’s policy isn’t working. I hope they didn’t punish him politically, as has been reported, because that would really be a very poor showing on this White House. But I think Mayor

4:13 Adams has to do a better job of making the state take responsibility. You know, New York City is not a sanctuary city. New York State is a sanctuary state. These people are not coming to New York City to come to New York State. It’s not Mayor adams problem to find out whether or not they should go to

4:34 Orange or Rockland County. It’s a state problem. All those state legislators and the assembly people and the senators love to give speeches we welcome everyone. Where a sanctuary state? Yeah, Now people showed up and the state legislature disappeared and the state government disappeared. If I’m Mayor Adams, I say, by the way, they didn’t come into New York City.

4:57 You know where they come in. Where’s the entry point? If you come in by bus or by plane, you come into the Port Authority. The Port Authority is a state agency, not a New York City agency. So I would say, if I’m Mayor Adams, New York State. Here they are, and you figure out how to disperse them

5:20 across the state proportion at least, let everybody do their proportionate share, because we are a sanctuary state and we were proud of it. But he has to be willing to say it directly to the state because this is just mayhem.

5:37 Speaker 1 But it’s out of control. I mean, this was meant that for a sanctuary policy for people that had a problem. If there was a problem in Venezuela, we want to help the people. If there was a problem in Panama, we want to help the people. We didn’t. I don’t think this was meant to have a free for all.

6:00 Speaker 2 It never was, and the immigration policy has never been. You had the confluence of two situations here. You have had many countries that have economic problems, political problems, so they’re generating more people who want to leave. And then Biden reversed Trump’s policy, which was a more controlled border.

6:25 I support Biden theoretically, but practically you want to open the border, there have to be controls and there has to be a plan. You’re going to bring in several hundred thousand people on amnesty complaints. Remember what these people come and they’re claiming amnesty, which means they enter the country, and it’s now pending their amnesty hearing, which means they

6:54 have to have a lawyer, and there has to be a court date, and this can be two years. And where are they going to be for two years? And I’ve literally gone and interviewed migrants who have come. We have them sitting in motels. We’re paying for the motel, we’re paying for the food. Some of them don’t even

7:15 have a court date. Some of them the court date is two years away. They don’t have a lawyer, and they can’t work. John, So you’re going to tell somebody sit on the bed for two years, we’ll pay for the motel, we’ll pay to feed you, we’ll have to find you a lawyer. You’re not allowed to work. I mean,

7:34 it’s just it’s terribly man.

7:38 Speaker 1 Doesn’t make any sense at all.

7:41 Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, it doesn’t.

7:45 Speaker 1 So, I mean we’re stuck on this right now, right now, unless well it’s the president’s decision. If Senator Schumer jumps up along with the Congress, I mean, well, I guess we can do something.

8:03 Speaker 2 Of course, we can do something. Look, this sense that we have in this country now that we are incapable of actions. Oh, it’s just the politics is so hard. Where did this come from? This is America. We were we won World Wars. We built the greatest buildings in the world, the greatest bridges in the world. There’s nothing

8:27 that we can’t do. We have this air of defeatism. Uh, it’s beyond us.

8:36 Speaker 1 Well, it seems like the common sense Democrats are not wanting to go. If the common sense Democrats sat down with the common sense Republicans, I think we could come up with solutions.

8:48 Speaker 2 Look, if you yes it’s the common sense reasonable people, then come up with solutions. I had a Republican Senate, John Democratic Assembly, Republican Senate for many, many years, and we passed the budget on time every year. We built Look wid at your airport. We built roads, we built bridges.

9:13 We did more for the state than had been done by any administration in modern history, because you be reasonable. Now we have a lack of reasonableness. We have a far right and a far left that want to hear themselves talk more than they want to actually do the people’s business. But this issue, this issue, this is President Biden,

9:37 this is the Democrats in the Senate and the House. They can change a policy where the flow of people coming in meets our ability to provide the resources. That’s what this is all about. The Republican governors should stop playing politics and sending people all across the board. The cities mayor Adams, call up Governor Hoko and the legislature

10:07 and say, this is not a city problem, it’s a state problem, and come down here and pick up these people and disperse them across the state. Now, so you take some stuff with, you take some buffalo, you take some and cities all across the nation have to do that.

10:26 But this is a doable issue, right. We’re not trying to cure cancer here in a week. John, This is a floodgate, it’s a border crossing, and then it’s a people management issue. We know how to do this.

10:43 Speaker 1 We just have to do it, understood. There’s so many other things that actually one of the biggest problems we have the migration on the border of the Rio Grande and the migration coming into New York City. Now, other other situations that exists. What else would you congestion pricing all of a sudden, You know Manhattan, You know Manhattan, well,

11:09 you’ve lived here quite a bit. Manhattan is in trouble. Half the stores are empty, and this congestion pricing in Manhattan is going to add another nail to the coffin.

11:24 Speaker 2 John I was the HUD Secretary Housing in Urban Development under Bill Clinton. What HUD did was it managed cities all across the nation. Cities are fragile equations, they can tip. I believe we’re in the midst of an urban crisis and we don’t even realize it. In this country, post COVID, there are new rules and you don’t have to be

11:47 in a city if you can work anywhere you want, remote work, live anywhere you want, work anywhere you want. And that’s especially true for people at the higher income spectrum, higher income spectrums where they pay the taxes. So you have to want to live in a city. And if a city is dirty, if the city is crime ridden,

12:10 if it has homeless if it has high taxes, I’m leaving. I’m not going to pay more to suffer.

12:22 Speaker 1 Four hundred and eighty four thousand people have left New York State in the last the last twenty four months, and the average salaries are the ones that left is one hundred and forty eight thousand dollars now we’re going to pay for the budget.

12:39 Speaker 2 The richer people are more mobile, they can more easily do remote work, and they are leaving John because they’re wealthy enough to come back to the city a few times a year and enjoy what they want to enjoy.

12:55 And I don’t think the politicians get it raising taxes on people. Now this passed budget. They just raised taxes on companies in New York City. Why don’t you just force them out of the city. It would be faster.

13:16 So this is the last thing they should be doing now, is increasing taxes. You want to say the exact opposite. One really egregious problem. Donald Trump changed the tax code and eliminated what was called state and local tax deductibility, basically doubled the taxes in New York and effectively double taxes and Democratic states across the country by not allowing

13:45 the deductibility. So you pay your state tax and then you pay federal tax on your state tax. Right, it’s a tax on a tax. Your Democrats promised every one of them that they would repeal it as soon as Trump was out of office. You know what they’ve done six years later. Nothing? Nothing. If they just repealed salt.

14:11 It would be a major boon to these democratic places that are now hemorrhaging people if they just lived up to their word once and just you even go back and look at what all of Shumer and Nadler and Biden and Jilibrin and Democratic Republican Democratic senators of Comoss people all of course the nations, they all promise, don’t worry,

14:35 we’ll repeal it. Yeah, stay on us for believing you.

14:39 Speaker 1 We got to a few more minutes, and I want to cover some things. I mean, the state did not pass the program that allowed real estate developers to develop more property in New York with tax credits, and so the construction industry, between high interest rates and no incentive, is coming to a halt.

15:04 Speaker 2 They made a bad situation worse. Number one reason why people are leaving cities lack of affordable housing, and we have no affordable housing plan. And what’s ridiculous is we could have solved two problems with one move. John, You have large scale commercial vacancies, which is going to be a major problem. Office space is not coming back the

15:31 way it was. Everybody gets that now. Cities all across the country.

15:34 Speaker 1 On Mondays and Friday’s, Governor, you can row bowling balls up sixth Avenue and up third Avenue.

15:40 Speaker 2 Yes, I’ve been trying to tell the business leaders. Lets everybody insist everybody come back five days a week, but they don’t want.

15:48 Speaker 1 To do that.

15:48 Speaker 2 So you have an abundance of vacant commercial space that could bankrupt buildings, It could bankrupt banks. Convert to commercial space to residential space. Do what you need to do. Change the zoning, provide subsidies.

16:08 Speaker 1 Sub has to be done. You’re right. Well, one last thing, Governor, one last thing was almost at a time, Uh, your old associate and friend Percopo was found innocent by the Supreme Court. Yeah. Was that a political witch hunting?

16:28 Speaker 2 Of course it was, of course it was. And I’ll tell you the greatest problem. You started by asking what’s the worst problem we’re facing in this country? What the worst problem is? We don’t trust the government, We don’t believe in the government anymore. And you know where you see it. There is prosecutorial misconduct, political prosecution in this

16:51 country and everyone knows it. You want to know what damning fact? John Alvin Bragg, the Democratic Manhattan DA indites Donald Trump seventy five percent of Americans say that the indictment was politically influenced seventy five percent. A majority of Democrats say the Democratic BA waslitic.

17:17 Speaker 1 Whether you like Donald Trump or don’t like Donald Trump, Americans believe in fannas.

17:23 Speaker 2 Yeah, but look at what Americans are now saying. We believe our criminal justice system is corrupt. We believe it. Seventy five percent believe you indicted Trump because you will politically influence Democrats and Republicans. This is this is like putin behavior right. Russia prosecutes political opponents, not us,