New York’s gubernatorial race heated up Tuesday when Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman faced off on the debate stage, with both men trading blows over President Donald Trump, a recent shooting and ICE-related inflation.
The debate opened with questions to candidates about the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which sparked outrage last week in New York after the shooting of a 28-year-old Dominican national who the Department of Homeland Security said had refused to comply with lawful orders during a targeted operation in the Bronx. A 5-year-old boy who was in Oscar Bergal’s vehicle was unhurt.
“Kathy Hochul appealed to ICE to release this criminal. The question New Yorkers need to ask is: What was this guy doing in New York in the first place? It’s because Kathy Hochul made us a sanctuary state,” said Blakeman, a Republican.
“Think about it. This guy entered the country illegally. He was convicted of a crime. He’s accused of dealing drugs and poisoning our children. And he’s a gang member. Is that what Kathy Hochul stands for?” » Blakeman continued. “I had a cooperative agreement with ICE until Kathy Hochul said we could no longer cooperate with ICE. We removed over 2,000 illegal immigrants from my county with criminal records ranging from rape, attempted murder, robbery, burglary, drug trafficking, carjacking, gang activity. And that’s because we cooperated with ICE, and we did not search a school, hospital, daycare or “If you cooperate with federal law enforcement, it makes the community safer. That’s what I did. That’s why things like this happen.”
Hochul called Blakeman’s response a “non-response” because “he refused to condemn what ICE did.”
“So basically he’s saying that in New York state it would be fine if ICE agents were shooting at cars, shooting at vehicles without knowing who was inside and could have killed a 5-year-old child. If that doesn’t shock everyone’s conscience – and it should shock their conscience too – let him say, it’s no big deal, this is how ICE is supposed to do it,” Hochul added. “I’ll tell you what. I oversee over 500 police agencies in New York State, over half a million arrests every year. That’s not how we behave. ICE is out of control. It’s out of control in Nassau County.”
Blakeman responded, saying “this would never have happened” without Hochul’s “sanctuary policy.”
“You invited criminals to come to our state and prey on our communities. And now you will not let local law enforcement cooperate with ICE in an orderly manner, as we did in my county,” Blakeman added. “We had no incidents in my county because we were allowed to cooperate with local law enforcement. But you took away that tool. The reason this happened is because of you, Kathy Hochul, and your immigration policies, where you invite people into our state, give them everything for free, and you don’t care if they are criminals or not. It’s bad policy.
This is an excerpt from an article by Greg Norman of Fox News.
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