A new poll finds that nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers blame President Biden for the migrant crisis, raising national security, financial and other concerns in the Empire State.
According to a Sienna College poll released Tuesday, 64% of New Yorkers disapprove of the job Biden is doing to address the state’s recent influx of migrants in October. That includes 48% of Democrats who flunk Biden for his handling of the crisis, 91% of Republicans and 72% of independents. The poll found that 46% of New Yorkers disapprove and only 30% approve of how New York City Mayor Eric Adams has handled the influx of migrants, and for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, 52% disagree, while only 37% approve.
“While other issues in Washington and abroad have dominated the news cycle over the past few weeks, the influx of migrants into New York remains top of mind among voters, with 84% saying it is a serious – 57% very serious – problem for the state,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “Rarely do we see an issue on which at least 79% of Democrats, Republicans, independents, men, women, upstaters, downstaters, Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Catholics, Jews, and Protestants all agree – that the influx of migrants is a serious problem.”
“The strong majority of voters last month who said by 22 points that New Yorkers should work to slow the flow of migrants rather than accept and assimilate them, grew in a whopping 35-point majority today,” Greenberg assessed. “That view is shared by 82% of Republicans, 68% of independents and 52% of Democrats, as well as two-thirds of those at the bottom and 59% of those at the top.”
MIGRANTS LIED TO MAYOR ERIC ADAMS’ CALL TO LEAVE NEW YORK: ‘THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE’
President Biden addresses world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept.19, 2023 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“While a majority of New Yorkers disapprove of the job Adams is doing to address the influx of migrants, a 58-32% majority of New Yorkers — including a narrow majority of Democrats – agrees with Adams’ statement that ‘this issue will destroy New York City.’ Majorities of White (60%), Black (57%) and Latino (51%) voters agree,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg estimates that New York remains a “true blue state,” as 49% of voters register as Democrats and only 23% as Republicans.
“It’s true, the last Republican presidential candidate to win here was Ronald Reagan in 1984. But it’s also true that just last year, a Republican came within seven points of being elected governor,” he added, citing Hochul’s relatively narrow victory over GOP gubernatorial candidate and then-congressman Lee Zeldin, who gained ground on his anti-bail reform, tough-on-crime platform.
“And it’s also true that right now, Biden has the worst New York favorability and job approval ratings,” Greenberg said. “The good news for Biden is that the election is more than a year away. The bad news is that there is more bad news.”
ERIC ADAMS SLAMS BIDEN FOR NOT SHOWING UP, IGNORING MIGRANT CRISIS AT NYC VISIT: ‘EVERYONE KNOWS WHERE I AM’
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to reporters with Colombia’s ambassador to the United States, Luis Gilberto Murillo, in Bogota, Colombia, Oct. 7, 2023. Adams visited earlier the same day at Darien Gap. (Chepa Beltran/Long Visual Press/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Greenberg noted that the poll found that 52% of Democrats say they want a different presidential nominee in 2024. Additionally, overall, he said, Biden only leads Trump by 46-37%, “far from 61-38% margin Biden wins in 2020.” Biden’s lead drops to just seven points if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornell West – which, combined, won the support of nearly one in five voters – are on the ballot, Greenberg added.
As of October 16, more than 126,700 migrants have arrived in New York City since last spring, including more than 64,100 people who remain in the care of the city. As migrants pour into New York City, the Big Apple faces a dual crisis because of the war with Israel. Hamas leaders have called for action around the world, and the NYPD has stepped up patrols this month, but Adams said so far there is no credible threat.
Migrants wait to register outside the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. Asylum seekers are forced to wait on the streets, as the hotel is currently at capacity. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
Adams’ relationship with Biden has soured in recent months amid the mayor’s push for more and timely support from federal authorities in handling the migrant crisis.
While Adams and Biden did not meet last month while the president was in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, Hochul met with Biden and secured a White House deal on fast-tracking work authorization for Venezuelans.
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Although Hochul apparently helped facilitate Adams’ controversial approach to moving migrants across the state by identifying thousands of eligible jobs in various counties available for migrants , the city is also opening a migrant shelter at Floyd Bennett Field, an airport in Brooklyn, in the coming weeks “to serve families with children seeking asylum in a semi-congregate setting.” City officials said privacy dividers with locks will be installed to give about 500 families with children a place to stay.
