Furious New York pols blasted President Biden on Wednesday for failing to address the Big Apple’s two major crises — the migrant influx and crime — during his fact-challenged State of the Union speech.
State Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-Staten Island) called the city’s $4.2 billion migrant crisis “one of the glaring omissions” in Biden’s 72-minute address, “especially having the mayor of New York City as an invited guest.”
“It gives the impression that it’s not being taken seriously,” he said. “I think what we needed to hear was proposals for a resolution and what kind of support the federal government is going to provide.”
Reilly, a former city cop, also said Biden “should be looking to Congress to develop a plan and provide resources to address the increase in crime” because the NYPD has “a staffing issue.”
“When I got hired in the PD, there was an increase in the ‘Safe Streets’ program. That was under President [Bill] Clinton,” he said. “We are a prime tourist location, we are an economic driver for the country and this is something that should get national attention.”
City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) said that the crisis at the southern US border “should’ve been 25% of [Biden’s] speech — how he plans to fix it, what he’ll do for the states affected.”
“The fact that he was silent on that is a tell-tale sign of the weakness of this administration,” Holden said. “You can’t blame the Republicans. Congress has been controlled by Democrats over the last two years. They couldn’t fix it.”
Biden made several passing references to the southern border but only said the problems there “won’t be fixed until Congress acts.”
State Sen. George Borello (R-Jamestown) called Biden’s speech “probably the most out-and-out, politically slanted State of the Union I’ve ever seen.”
“He’s still not addressing the border and lack of security. Every town is a border town – including New York City — and New York City wants to share that pain with the poor rural counties in upstate, like the communities I represent,” he said.
“If the president can’t secure the border, then he should tell the sanctuary cities they need to rescind that status before they get any aid to deal with the migrant crisis he created.”
Borello added: “A sanctuary city is a wonderful thing for liberals to talk about at cocktail parties but it means something to the millions of people who think they can come here to live off the taxpayers illegally — and that’s the mess that this sanctuary city crisis creates.”
Former Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said he “was screaming at the TV to hear about the two most important issues — crime and open borders.”
“All I heard was nonsense,” he said.
The former gubernatorial candidate fumed that the migrant crisis was “getting worse” and that crime had “turned this country upside-down.”
“All we get from Biden is: See no evil, hear no evil,'” he said.
US Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Long Island) said blew a chance to “offer meaningful and concrete solutions” to rising crime.
“New Yorkers have seen firsthand how being soft on crime can impact communities. We need serious and bipartisan plans to address these challenges to ensure the safety of all our families,” he said.
Some officials from Staten Island, which has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, lashed into Biden over the border crisis, which critics blame for the flow of deadly fentanyl into the US from Mexico.
“The absence of a real strategy to prevent fentanyl deaths might be Joe Biden’s real legacy. It could be his Waterloo,” City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said. “Over the next decade, we could see tens of thousands of deaths because of Biden’s failure to control the border.”
US Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island, Brooklyn) also said, “No one is doing better in Joe Biden’s America than the Mexican drug cartels who have exploited our wide-open border to make billions every month by poisoning our youth with fentanyl and other drugs.”
“President Biden needs to be honest that it’s his executive orders and border policies that got us here,” she added.
Mayor Eric Adams, who last month pressed Biden for a private meeting over the migrant crisis and his request for $1 billion in emergency federal aid, said in a prepared statement that he agreed with the part of Biden’s speech that called for “comprehensive immigration reform.”
“As I’ve repeatedly said, the asylum-seeker crisis is a national problem that needs a national solution, in the short-, medium- and long-term,” he said. “New York and other cities across the country are struggling with this crisis. We need help and we need it now.”
Adams also obliquely referred to the rate of serious crimes in Gotham, which increased more than 4% last month, reversing the downward trend that he and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell touted at the end of 2022.
“I look forward to a continued partnership with the Biden-Harris administration to deliver greater public safety for all New Yorkers, continued growth for our economy and a comprehensive immigration policy for our country,” Adams said.
