The US should be prioritizing its own homeless population rather than migrants from other countries, former New York Gov. David Paterson said on Sunday — while claiming that the asylum process is “starting to become an industry.”
The Democrat, in an interview on WABC 770’ “Cats Roundtable’s,” brought up the recent standoff outside a Manhattan hotel where a group of migrants camped out last week when they were told to relocate to a new processing center at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.
“What bothered me last week … was when the migrants who were asked to go to the facilities in Brooklyn said that they would rather stay at the one in midtown Manhattan,” he told host John Catsimatidis, saying the city had good reason to want to move them.
“Not two blocks away from that hotel there were other people out on the street who are homeless,” he said. “They have problems too. And they are citizens of the United States. They live here,” he said.
Paterson claimed that the migrants who protested the move outside the Watson Hotel were “egged on by the media,” and that individuals “and even members of the media, were … stirring it up just to get a lot of attention.” City Hall has blamed activists for stirring up the protests.
The ex-governor claimed he is “100%” in favor of migrants who seek asylum if they meet the requirements, but appears to think the issue is getting out of hand.
“I don’t know that asylum isn’t starting to become an industry, because so many people are choosing to do this,” he said. “It’s really creating an encumbrance on the city’s resources. I’m glad Mayor Adams has been speaking out about it.”
Paterson was governor of New York between March 2008 and December 2010, succeeding Elliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace.
Toward the end of his tenure, he was plagued by allegations of witness tampering in a domestic abuse case and for receiving an unlawful free gift of World Series tickets and lying about it. The Commission on Public Integrity fined him more than $60,000 over the cover up in 2010.
