A New York City congresswoman furious with the city, state, and federal response to illegal immigrants flocking to the Big Apple is turning up the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to act.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), a Republican who represents the borough of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, will get a House floor vote Thursday on her bill to block the government from spending U.S. taxpayer money to house illegal immigrants on federal land, but one major player stands in the way of getting the bill to the president’s desk.
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“We’ll see if Schumer brings it up for a vote in the Senate,” Malliotakis said during a phone call Wednesday afternoon. “For someone who advocates for democracy, he never lets it take place.”
It’s a common gripe among House Republicans who routinely see their legislation ignored in the Democratic-led Senate. While Malliotakis said the burgeoning New York illegal immigrant crisis should prompt Schumer to act, she noted the Democrat has refused to take up other House Republican legislation related to the border crisis.
“I fear … that may be the fate of my bill, but we’re going to continue to put him — to hold him to account because he’s from Brooklyn. He’s from the city where the mayor is saying, ‘This is destroying New York City and will bankrupt it,'” Malliotakis said. “Sen. Schumer will do nothing to address [it]. He won’t even acknowledge we have a crisis — and so holding him accountable in his own borough of Brooklyn if he doesn’t let this bill come to the floor for a vote.”
Since 2021, more than 200,000 immigrants from the southern border have sought assistance, including shelter, food, clothing, and work, from New York City. Many have been bused from Texas under Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) effort to bring the border crisis to blue cities.
The Biden administration in August blamed Democratic leaders in New York following state and local officials’ complaints that the federal government had failed to help the sanctuary zone respond to its immigrant crisis, even after receiving $100 million in aid from Congress in June.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sent letters to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams this summer after the two demanded that Washington do more to help the state respond.
Hochul has targeted the White House as the reason for the crisis and said during a speech in August that the problem “originated with the federal government, and it must be resolved with the federal government.”
The state has asked the Biden administration to identify federal land where it can house tens of thousands of immigrants currently in the city’s shelters. The city has housed immigrants in 200 sites.
The Biden administration identified 11 federal sites across the state where the city could house immigrants, including the federal Floyd Bennett Field.
Malliotakis has worked with local lawmakers to sue to block the Brooklyn national parkland from being used as an emergency shelter for illegal immigrants.
Malliotakis said the housing crisis will never end because immigrants continue to cross the border and head to New York City, where Adams “chose to misinterpret” the city’s right to shelter law as being relevant to all, including non-U.S. citizens, as well as NYC residents.
Her House bill would further tie the government’s hands and block federal lands from becoming shelter sites for illegal immigrants.
“My parents are immigrants, my constituents. I have immigrant populations from all over the world in my district. And I will tell you that they are equally upset by seeing how individuals who have come through our southern border the wrong way are now being rewarded with free housing and services that they never received and even as citizens don’t receive now,” Malliotakis said.
On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee advanced her bill to block the federal government from spending money on any Department of Interior immigrant housing project.
The White House put out a statement strongly opposing the bill, but short of promising to veto it, should it make it to a Senate vote.
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“I’ll say this: If the White House came out against it, you know it’s a good bill,” Malliotakis said.
Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
