Hochul heads to White House during migrant mess — but not to meet Biden

#Metro #joebiden #kathyhochul #migrants Kathy Hochul traveled to the White House on Wednesday but did not meet with President Biden about New York's worsening immigration crisis. A White House spokesman confirmed the two were expected to discuss the influx of migrants with work permits but would not go into further detail. "Since it is about this private meeting and what New York is demanding, I will not get in the way of their meeting today," spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said before the meeting. It was not immediately clear what happened during the meeting Wednesday evening. But New York lawmakers were hoping Hochul would urge ministration to ignore politics and take action. “Governor Hochul should tell President Biden that just because we are in an election cycle is no excuse for inaction on the immigration crisis,” said state Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar . "Nobody in either party wants our leaders to sit on the sidelines and do nothing just because it's an election year. Nobody's voting for this person." “It is critical that federal government listen to the calls of all concerned citizens in our state and take action to stop this crisis,” Staten Island lawmaker continued. The D.C. trip comes a week after Hochul began blame game over immigrant crisis in New York, saying in a speech that White House should take responsibility for refugee influx. "The reality is that we've been able to get this job done so far without significant support from Washington," the governor said in a speech in Albany last week. Calls for help from feds were met even more spectacularly days later;Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas blamed both the city and state for handling large-scale humanitarian crisis caused by national policies. President Biden is not scheduled to attend the governor's convention. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly criticized federal government for failing to help city deal with more than 100,000 immigrants who have arrived in city since spring of 2022, at an eye-watering $12 billion cost by 2025. The rhetoric between NYC and Albany has also intensified in recent weeks, with both sides trying to shift blame;this was a blow to the united Democratic front. Hizzoner stepped up his criticism Tuesday Hochul's handling of local immigrant influx, saying Hochul was clearly "wrong" for not pushing other parts state accept refugees and leaving it to Big Apple deal with crisis. "He's the governor of New York state. Every county in this state should be a part of this," he insisted.