Gov. Hochul grilled by lawmakers on illegal immigration, sanctuary cities
In her opening statement, Hochul condemned the military use in Los Angeles, a move by the Trump Administration in response to political unrest, protesting the enforcement efforts underway by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
'As we speak, the streets of an American City have been militarized over the objections of the governor,' Hochul said. 'This is nothing short of a flagrant abuse of power, an assault on our American values.'
Hochul then went on to say that her administration has a history of cooperating with ICE.
'Since I became governor, we've cooperated in handing over more than 1,300 convicted criminals to ICE,' Hochul said. 'What we don't do is enforce civil immigration violations – that's the federal government's job. New Yorkers need their state troopers seizing guns and drugs, and patrolling highways. States like mine are doing our part, but we can't be expected to fix this nation's broken immigration system.'
During the course of the hearing, Hochul was pressed by several lawmakers that comprise the committee, including Congresswoman Elise Stefanik who represents New York's 21st congressional district.
Stefanik laid out multiple examples of illegal immigrants committing heinous crimes across the state as a back and forth ensued between her and Hochul who insisted that her administration cooperated in all of those cases.
'We deserve a governor who stands up for law abiding New Yorkers, doesn't put illegals first, but actually puts New Yorkers first,' Stefanik said to Hochul.
'Rather than going after the viral moment, I suggest you look at the facts,' Hochul said.
'I'm standing up for New Yorkers!' Stefanik said. 'Rather than addressing the illegals in New York, you're prioritizing your far-left, sanctuary state policies which you put in place with executive orders.'
'We cooperate in all of those cases,' Hochul said. 'We cooperate with ICE.'
Congressman Nick Langworthy brought up the Green Light Law, which allows New Yorkers over the age of 16 to apply for a license or learner's permit regardless of their immigration status.
'Gov. Hochul, you took an oath to serve the citizens of New York, and you've allowed violent criminals who came here illegally to hide in plain sight and to avoid federal officials because of your support for the Green Light Law,' Langworthy said. 'This is an abomination. This is not keeping New Yorkers safe.'
Congressman Jim Jordan, Republican from Ohio, questioned Hochul on her statement that her administration has cooperated with federal authorities on the issue. He cited examples of illegal immigrants committing violent crimes, and then being let out before they have a chance to be deported, which Hochul said is not the policy of state prisons.
'That is sanctuary policy in a nutshell,' Jordan said. 'That is what your state supports and so do these other governors. That is what is so wrong and why the American people hate this concept.'
'You're conflating what the state of New York does,' Hochul said in response. 'I control state police and prisons.'
Hochul was joined alongside two other governors for the hearing, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
You can watch the full hearing here.
Rob Petree is an anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in 2025. See more of his work by clicking here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
9 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump to join Washington patrol while feds deploy checkpoints around city
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to join a Thursday evening patrol in the nation's capital as federal authorities deploy checkpoints around the city and sometimes ask people for their immigration status after stopping them. 'I'm going to be going out tonight with the police and with the military," the Republican president told Todd Starnes, a conservative commentator. Trump's presence during his controversial crackdown, which has lasted for two weeks, would be the latest show of force from the White House. Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard soldiers have surged into Washington this month, leaving some residents on edge and creating tense confrontations in the streets. Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday visited some of the troops at Union Station, showing their support while protestors chanted 'free D.C.' Although the city has historically struggled with crime, statistics show the problem was declining before Trump declared there was a crisis that required his intervention. Immigration enforcement has been a core part of the crackdown, rattling people in some of the city's neighborhoods. A daycare was partially closed on Thursday when staff became afraid to go to work because they heard about federal agents nearby. An administrator asked parents to keep their children at home if possible. Other day cares have stopped taking kids on daily walks because of fears about encountering law enforcement. Since Aug. 7, when Trump began surging federal agents into the city, there have been 630 arrests, including 251 people who are in the country illegally, according to the White House. Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure since then, seizing control of the D.C. police department on Aug. 11 and deploying more National Guard troops, mostly from Republican-led states. Soldiers have been largely stationed in downtown areas, such as monuments on the National Mall and transit stations. However, federal agents are operating more widely through the city. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged the proliferation of traffic checkpoints on Thursday. 'The surge of federal officers is allowing for different types of deployments, more frequent types of deployments, like checkpoints,' Bowser said. Not a normal traffic stop On Thursday morning, as Martin Romero rode through Washington's Rock Creek Park on his way to a construction job in Virginia, he saw police on the road up ahead. He figured it was a normal traffic stop, but it wasn't. Romero, 41, said that U.S. Park Police were telling pickup trucks with company logos to pull over, reminding them that commercial vehicles weren't allowed on park roads. They checked for licenses and insurance information, and then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came over. Romero said there were two agents on one side of his truck and three on the other. He started to get nervous as the agents asked where they were from and whether they were in the country illegally. 'We just came here to work,' Romero said afterwards. 'We aren't doing anything bad.' Two people in his truck were detained and the agents didn't give a reason, he said. He also saw three other people taken from other vehicles. 'I feel really worried because they took two of our guys," he said. "They wouldn't say where they're taking them or if they'll be able to come back.' Romero said he called his boss, who told him to just head home. They wouldn't be working today. Enrique Martinez, a supervisor at the construction company, came to the scene afterwards. He pondered whether to call families of the detained men. 'This has never happened to our company before," Martinez said. "I'm not really sure what to do.' Checkpoints are legal, to a point The Supreme Court has upheld the use of law enforcement and government checkpoints for specific purposes, such as for policing the border and for identifying suspected drunk drivers. But there are restrictions on that authority, especially when it comes to general crime control. Jeffrey Bellin, a former prosecutor in Washington and professor at Vanderbilt Law School who specializes in criminal law and procedures, said the Constitution doesn't allow 'the government to be constantly checking us and stopping to see if we're up to any criminal activity.' He said checkpoints for a legally justifiable purpose — like checking for drivers' licenses and registrations — cannot be used as 'subterfuge' or a pretext for stops that would otherwise not be allowed. And though the court has affirmed the use of checkpoints at the border, and even some distance away from it, to ask drivers about immigration status, Bellin said it was unlikely the authority would extend to Washington. Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law, said the seemingly 'arbitrary' and intrusive nature of the checkpoints in the capital could leave residents feeling aggrieved. 'Some of the things could be entirely constitutional and fine, but at the same time, the way that things are unfolding, people are suspicious — and I think for good reason,' he said. From Los Angeles to D.C. There are few places in the country that have been unaffected by Trump's deportation drive, but his push into D.C. is shaping into something more sustained, similar to what has unfolded in the Los Angeles area since early June. In Los Angeles, immigration officers — working with the Border Patrol and other federal agencies — have been a near-daily presence at Home Depots, car washes and other highly visible locations. In a demonstration of how enforcement has affected routines, the bishop of San Bernardino, California, formally excused parishioners of their weekly obligation to attend Mass after immigration agents detained people on two parish properties. Immigration officials have been an unusually public presence, sending horse patrols to the city's famed MacArthur Park and appearing outside California Gov. Gavin Newsom's news conference last week on congressional redistricting. Authorities said an agent fired at a moving vehicle last week after the driver refused to roll down his window during an immigration stop. The National Guard and Marines were previously in the city for weeks on an assignment to maintain order amid protests.
San Francisco Chronicle
9 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Iowa Democrats consider bringing back lead off caucuses, even if it means going 'rogue' in 2028
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Just days before national Democrats gather for their annual summer meeting, Iowa's state party officials on Thursday said it was a mistake for the party to have abandoned Iowa in the 2024 early nominating calendar and opened up the possibility of going rogue the next time around. In 2022, President Joe Biden ordered a shake-up of the 2024 election calendar, moving South Carolina's primary ahead of contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The move forced Iowa Democrats to ditch the five-decade, first-in-the-nation caucus where community members publicly signal their support for a candidate, a process that was plagued with problems in 2020. The state party's criticism came with an open threat of defying the national party's orders in 2028 as Iowa Democrats look to bring the once-competitive, Midwestern state back on the radar of a party questioning its values, direction and future leaders. 'It was a big mistake in the Biden calendar to know that Iowa Republicans are going first here in this state and that, as Democrats, we sat and watched all this attention and the millions of dollars being spent in the state without those kinds of resources to push back on the Republican agenda," said Rita Hart, state party chair. 'That did not help us here in Iowa and it did not help us long term for the national Democratic cause.' Hart said that would be reflected in her own response to the state party's new survey, designed to solicit feedback from Democrats across the state on the priorities for 2028, including on the tradeoffs of the traditional caucus process and potential threats from the Democratic National Committee. Officials in the traditionally four early-voting states — and many others — are readying themselves to campaign for top billing, even though it's likely still two years before the Democratic National Committee actually solidifies the order. Iowa Democrats said Thursday that Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, might unveil the process for states to make their 2028 pitch at next week's biannual meetings. Democratic officials said they expect to have preliminary conversations next week. But Iowa's Scott Brennan will no longer be a member of the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee, which deals with the nominating process. That leaves Iowa without a seat at the table for the first time for the better part of 25 years, Brennan said. Brennan, former state party chair, said Iowans are 'rule followers by nature' but reiterated Thursday that last cycle's process was not fair as he conveyed his own wishes for 2028: "Full speed ahead and damn the DNC." Last year, Iowa Democrats held caucuses eight days before any other state's contest, as is required by Iowa law. But Democratic voters had cast their 2024 presidential preference ballots by mail, with results released that March on Super Tuesday alongside other states. Meanwhile, New Hampshire rebelled in 2024, holding an unsanctioned primary in January, but the DNC ultimately dropped its threat to not seat the state's national convention delegates. Even as the Iowa Democratic Party considers going forward with a first-in-the-nation contest once again, it will still come with logistical questions. The survey includes questions on how the party should handle issues of inclusion and accessibility for the process, which has historically required participants to be registered with the party and physically present, sometimes for hours, in the evening during the heart of the Midwest winter. While Hart said the survey is designed to better understand Iowa Democrats' values to guide their approach to 2028, she suggested there are 'too many moving pieces' to say now how that approach will look. For now, 2028 prospects are making visits to the historically early states, including Iowa. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reemerged after the 2024 election loss with a town hall in Des Moines in March; Biden's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who performed well in the 2020 Iowa caucuses, stopped by a VoteVets Action Fund gathering in May; and Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona spoke to hundreds in eastern Iowa earlier this month. 'The fact of the matter is is that Iowa law requires that we be a caucus,' he said, "and I think we intend to be a caucus.'
USA Today
9 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump's latest legal victory
Hi! Rebecca Morin here. Breaking: President Donald Trump said he plans to join law enforcement on the streets of Washington D.C. on Thursday night amid his federal takeover of the city. Trump's civil fraud court loss thrown out President Donald Trump just got another personal legal victory. The $454 million penalty imposed against Trump in his New York civil fraud case has been thrown out by an appeals court. In a Thursday ruling, the five-judge Manhattan-based appeals court determined the penalty was improper. Some members of the panel said that the penalty violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on excessive fines. Others said Trump should get a new trial due to errors in the trial judge's determinations. Why was Trump facing a penalty? Trump and some of his entities were hit with that hefty penalty, plus interest, in February 2024, after New York trial Judge Arthur Engoron concluded that Trump had inflated the value of his assets for years to get better loan and insurance terms. Engoron also imposed about $10 million in separate penalties against Trump's eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr., and former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg. Why Trump claimed 'TOTAL VICTORY' after the appeals court decision. A look at Trump's holdings: Trump has bought more than $100 million in company, state and municipal bonds since taking office in January, according to government disclosures about the billionaire's holdings posted online Tuesday. Trump and his family have no involvement in directing or influencing what to buy or sell, which are decisions made by a third-party investment manager, according to a White House source familiar with the report. The Office of Government Ethics certified the report in compliance with legal requirements, the source said. See which bonds the president bought. A politics pit stop A new Texas voting map It could be as early as Thursday when Texas Republicans fully pass a new state congressional map intended to flip five Democratic-held U.S. House seats up for grabs in the 2026 elections. Republican legislators in the state House passed the map in an 88-52 vote on Wednesday. Earlier this month, dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout, temporarily delaying the bill's passage. The map will now go to the Senate, where it is set to pass, and then head to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. Texas undertook a rare mid-decade redistricting to help Trump improve their party's odds of holding a narrow U.S. House majority amid political turmoil. How the new map will set off a 'redistricting arms race.' A pause on White House tours If you were coming to Washington in the fall and hoping to get a tour of the White House, you're out of luck. The White House has suspended popular public tours of the historic building starting Sept. 1 during Trump's planned construction of a new ballroom. The White House hasn't announced how long the hiatus in tours will last. But lawmakers who arrange tours for their constituents – subject to White House approval – are warning that none are expected for the indefinite future. What to know about Trump's ballroom project. Got a burning question, or comment, for On Politics? You can submit them here or send me an email at rdmorin@
