150 National Guard members to fully focus on migrant crisis

ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) -- On Monday, Governor Hochul announced the state is deploying an additional 150 national guard members to help with the ongoing migrant crisis. This will total over 2000 national guard members on the asylum seeker mission with 250 national guard members being fully focused on case management, speeding up the process for migrants to exit shelter and attain legal work status.

"Helping them support themselves, helping them leave these shelters because I believe they did not come all these thousands of miles to live in a shelter with hundreds if not, thousands of others," said Governor Hochul. The Governor pointed to jobs needing to be filled in farming, construction, nursing homes, hospitals and more.

Last week, the Biden Administration finally responded to requests for help by granting temporary protective status to Venezuelans  who arrived in the US before July 31. But the need for federal aid is far from over. "It was easier for the city and the state to manage in the early days, the scale now requires a full on federal government approach and they’ve been doing what they can, but I’ll say it for the tenth time, we need more money," said Hochul.

Commissioner of Homeland Security, Jackie Bray said we must reduce the number of people who need shelter and expedite the timeline for people to exit, "Sometimes it takes more investment upfront, to save time on the back end, so you have to spend money today and devote resources today to help people leave shelters faster."

The state has $25 million in a resettlement program that will help over 1200 migrant families who are eligible to work, get set up with permanent homes. At Mondays press event, the governor said she hopes to get all migrants, not just Venezuelans, temporary protective status.