Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Holds a Briefing to Update New Yorkers on Meeting With Border Czar Tom Homan

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul held a briefing in the Red Room to update New Yorkers on her meeting with White House Border Czar Tom Homan.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Thank you. I'm joined by Head of State Operations Jackie Bray. I just concluded a meeting with Border Czar Tom Homan. He came here because I initiated a conversation about our deep concerns about immigration enforcement in the State of New York while I was in the White House about two weeks ago. And as a result of that, we spoke on the phone and he decided he would come see me in person, so I extended that invitation.

But I took the opportunity to make our position clear. First of all, I do not support open borders. We want to make sure that our borders are safe and secure. I do not support having individuals who've committed violent crimes remain in our state - they should be deported. But I also believe in a pathway to citizenship and the opportunities for people who are already here, who came with legal status, who were welcomed at the door and given a legal document, a pathway to citizenship through asylum - I want those individuals to be able to work. We talked about work permits and how important that is to be able to allow them to work on our farms and in hospitality and in health care, and all the jobs that are going unfilled now.

And I will also say that I spoke about the incident in Buffalo, how horrific it was, and I comforted the wife of the refugee who was blind and left abandoned at a Tim Hortons a few weeks ago during a very cold night, and that led to his death. And we gave him a list of names of family members left in Myanmar and asked that they be given visas so they can be united. This is the sobbing widow's request to me, so I said we would pursue that as well.

And we also provided the names of a number of students who are in detention that we would like to see released. I'd also mentioned how we do not want to see any large scale detention centers or expansions of detention centers here in the State of New York. That has created anxiety all the way from Orange County to Suffolk County, to the North Country and Rochester - so I raised those issues as well.

That is basically the context of the conversation. It was an important conversation to be had for him to hear directly from me the concerns I have on behalf of New Yorkers as I continue my prime responsibility, which is to keep New Yorkers safe  and I will not be disclosing his side of the conversation. I'm just telling you what I raised with him. But if there's any quick questions on topic.

Contact the Governor's Press Office