Staten Island Borough President Vito J. Fossella revealed Friday on Fox Business that taxpayers are paying thousands of dollars for migrants to stay within New York City, slamming the continuation of “unsustainable” policies.
Fossella appeared on “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” to discuss NYC’s ongoing migrant crisis, as local residents have begun to voice their concerns over the massive amounts of illegal migrants entering the city. Fox host Maria Bartiromo asked Fossella about what impact the migrant crisis has had in Staten Island. (RELATED: New York City Residents Say Quality Of Life Has Dropped As Crime, Illegal Immigration Swell)
“The migrant crisis is one of the worst things I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Fossella stated. “First of all, it’s a fraud on the American people and the people of Staten Island. Almost two years ago when this thing started, we said the policy was going to be unsustainable. There were those who welcomed the migrants in midtown with champagne glasses, and we said this was going to basically be unfair to taxpayers, not to mention law-abiding citizens and those who want to come to this country legally.”
“Sure enough in less than two years, we’re up to [a] $12 billion price tag [in] the city of New York- [it’s] about $150,000 per migrant, per year,” he said. “That’s twice the median household income of the United States. Meanwhile, we still have folks in Washington that say there’s no problem at the border. Well, we are paying the price. We’re paying the price heavily. It continues to be unsustainable. Until there are policy differences that are made at the border, unfortunately law-abiding, tax-paying citizens will have to absorb this and it’s just not fair or right to them.”
As the blue city received massive backlash over its migrant crisis last year, the issue appeared to escalate further after a group of illegal migrants attacked two New York Police Department (NYPD) officers near Times Square. As the migrants had been shortly released after their arrest, many online called out the city’s policies in handling the issue.
Crime has notably concerned many within the blue city, with a recent poll conducted by the Citizens Budget Commission finding only 30% of residents believe the city is “excellent” or “good,” compared to the 50% that voted in 2017 and 2008. Many of the residents’ top concern was found to be over NYC’s rising rates of violent crimes like homicide or felony assault within 2023.