For years, New York Gov. has been courting the illegal alien special interests by bending to their every whim and whimper. The emergence of leftist actress Cynthia Nixon in the race for governor has triggered Cuomo to move even farther out of the mainstream on immigration, but it might not be enough to satisfy the ravenous demands of the open border groups.
In response to the conclusion of a six-day Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action that netted 225 individuals across New York, Cuomo announced that $10 million in taxpayer money would be used to defend those detained.
Cuomo on Thursday called the enforcement actions “immoral and un-New York” and characterized them as “hyper-aggressive raids on hardworking New Yorkers.” It apparently escaped his attention that more than 180 were convicted criminals, including several with arrests for manslaughter and sexual abuse of adults and children.
With the New York Times reporting this week that Nixon has gained 16 points on Cuomo in the last month, the governor’s office has expressed support for legislative efforts to allow illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses.
When he is not manipulating state law to fit the demands of illegal immigrants, he is manipulating his own history.
“I’m undocumented. You want to deport an undocumented person, start with me because I’m an undocumented person,” the native-born New Yorker said at a signing ceremony for a bill protecting union rights.
Cuomo’s use of revisionist history, however, is not new.
In a November 20, 2016 speech, Cuomo issued a challenge to federal immigration officials, saying “If there is a move to deport immigrants then I say start with me.”
But all of the talk and all of the government benefits already directed to illegal immigrants is simply not enough.
Radical left-wing groups, Make the Road, New York Communities for Change, and Citizen Action of New York, that oppose any enforcement of U.S. immigration law recently endorsed Nixon.
On Thursday, the self-described “immigrants’ rights” group Make the Road issued a joint statement slamming Cuomo for failing to deliver on his campaign promises.
“Now, three months later, our communities are faced with a dismal budget that fails to meet our needs or expand protections for our communities,” said Director Javier Valdés and Co-Director Deborah Axt.
Their “needs” include raising taxes on corporations and legal New Yorkers to allow for more tax dollars to be used to “fund more adult education for immigrants; the expansion of legal services for immigrants facing deportation; a more robust Child Health Plus system, which is a national model for providing coverage to all children regardless of immigration status; and increased efforts by the Department of Labor to protect immigrant workers facing exploitation and abuse.”
The question is not whether Cuomo will continue moving to the extremes, but how far he will go – and at what cost to legal New York residents?