Reps. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler are not on the House Oversight Committee. But the New York Republicans were present and ready for the opportunity to question Gov. Kathy Hochul Thursday.
Stefanik and Lawler, who are both rumored to be considering a bid for governor against Hochul in 2026, made guest appearances at a committee hearing on sanctuary state governors.
Stefanik’s questioning could have been campaign attack lines.
“We deserve a governor who stands up for law-abiding New Yorkers, who doesn’t put illegals first but actually puts New Yorkers first,” Stefanik told Hochul. “It’s one of the many reasons why you’re hemorrhaging support from hardworking New Yorkers.”
Other non-committee members also made appearances to question the governors — or in the case of Democrats, go on the offensive against President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles.
But Stefanik and Lawler especially honed in on attacks on Hochul, arguing that her leadership in New York has paved the way for failures in immigration policy.
Stefanik has lambasted Hochul’s policies — including those on immigration — on multiple recent occasions, a move that’s prompted speculation that she’s starting to build a platform for a potential campaign for governor.
Though Trump endorsed Lawler for reelection to his House seat in an apparent attempt to back a Stefanik gubernatorial bid, Lawler told reporters last month that he hasn’t ruled out his own bid for the seat. He spoke at the tail end of Thursday’s hearing, which lasted for more than seven hours.
The two members accordingly spent Thursday’s hearing poking at Hochul’s record more than they weighed in on the larger national conversation around immigration.
Lawler brought up non-immigration-related issues like congestion pricing, a policy that went into effect under Hochul and has drawn opposition from New York Republicans.
“New York has spent billions of dollars of taxpayer money providing free housing, clothing, food, education and health care to illegal immigrants,” Lawler said. “Meanwhile, you’re charging hardworking New Yorkers $2,500 annually just for the privilege of driving to work.”
Stefanik named multiple crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in New York, including an incident in December when an undocumented migrant from Guatemala, who reentered the United States after being deported, fatally burned a woman in a New York City subway car.
“No amount of work is going to clean up your failed record and these horrific crimes committed in a sanctuary state that you created,” Stefanik said. She also told Hochul that migrants who have committed crimes “are walking on the streets because of your policies and your executive order.”
Hochul signed an executive order on her first day in office extending executive orders from previous administrations, including one by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying that immigration authorities can only conduct civil arrests in New York state facilities with a warrant to take a subject into custody.
New York state law also prohibits state and local law enforcement officers from arresting undocumented migrants for civil violations alone, even if federal immigration authorities issue a detainer or arrest warrant for a migrant. That law is similar to policies in other sanctuary jurisdictions that limit local and state law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The state’s sanctuary state status also comes from a patchwork of other policies, including a state law limiting how much identification information the state shares with federal immigration authorities and more.
Lawler also asked Hochul about a bill under consideration in New York’s state legislature. Called the New York for All Act, the bill would codify into law provisions that prevent state and local law enforcement from carrying out civil federal immigration law. Democratic lawmakers from New York have backed the bill.
Hochul said she does not know what the outcome of the bill will be and did not give a definitive answer to Lawler about whether she would sign it if it passes.
Lawler took the issue as an opportunity to cast doubt on Hochul’s performance as governor, saying she has “done a terrible job as governor” and telling Hochul, “New York is better off with you down here and not in the state.”
Hochul, meanwhile, turned the attacks from GOP members around by arguing multiple times that she does “cooperate fully” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — including by pointing out that the state has turned over more than 1,000 migrants convicted of crimes to federal immigration authorities.
She also pointed to declining crime rates in New York amid sanctuary state policies and alleged that the GOP members criticizing her misunderstood the role of state governments, which are involved in criminal enforcement but not civil enforcement.
“You’re just not accepting the facts,” she said when New York Rep. Nick Langworthy criticized her handling of state immigration policy. “I can’t help that.”
—
Shifra Dayak is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.