Defiant “sanctuary” cities and states such as New York are acting like Confederate rebels and should lose “all’’ of their federal funding if they refuse to deport illegal migrants, ex-Gov. George Pataki said Sunday.
“No more business as usual,” Pataki said on WABC 770 AM radio’s “Cats Roundtable” program. “If you’re going to have a country based on the rule of law, it has to apply equally everywhere.
“Cities and states that pretend that the federal rules don’t apply to them are just violating the constitution, violating our freedom,” the ex-New York gov said. “I would hope that President Trump with this Congress will just defund any city or state that refuses to follow the federal laws.
“Trump must make them follow the law or cut off all federal funding. I think that would be a very positive step to bring America together.”
Pataki said New York and other local and state elected officials who defy immigration laws are acting like Confederacy-backers who provoked the Civil War in the 1800s by trying to secede from the Union.
Today, so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions refuse to honor or limit US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests to turn over illegal migrants.
Pataki, the three-term Empire State governor from 1995 to 2006, told host John Catsimatidis, “We had a civil war over this” kind of thing.
“The South lost,” he said. “It became plain that under the Constitution, every city, every state has to follow the law of this country. New York City is not right now. San Francisco, Los Angeles, California – other places aren’t.”
He noted that the New York City Council approved “sanctuary” laws that restrict local law enforcement and jail officials from cooperating and turning over even undocumented criminal migrants.
During a recent meeting with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he was eyeing an executive order to “unravel” the local confusing rules and policies for how the Big Apple can work with federal immigration authorities.
“I’m going to use my executive power to go after dangerous people who are committing violence acts as migrants and asylum seekers,” he said.
On Sunday, a City Hall rep, asked about Pataki’s comments, referred The Post to Adams’ prior statements criticizing aspects of the city’s sanctuary laws that make it difficult to deport migrants who are repeat violent offenders. The mayor’s legal staff has followed up with Homan’s team to craft ways to bolster cooperation to deport migrant criminals.
“It’s a privilege to be in America. If you violate [the law], you shouldn’t be in this country,” Adams said on the Fox News Channel last week, referring to migrants committing crimes.
The Empire State became an illegal-migrant sanctuary based on a Sept. 15, 2017, executive order signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which covers state agencies but not local law enforcement.
Current Gov. Kathy Hochul has continued the sanctuary policy.
New York also approved a law in 2019 allowing illegal migrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
“We need Trump, we need Washington to step in and say, ‘This is wrong,’ ” Pataki said. “I think [Mayor] Adams would go along with that. I think he agrees that being a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, including thousands of criminals, just doesn’t work, and it’s got to stop.”
Hochul last month said she would help federal authorities deport migrants who commit crimes.
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