Youngstown, N.Y. (WBEN) - New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt says there's been a 300% uptick in illegal border crossings in Niagara County alone. Ortt says, however, there's no need for new border laws to be passed in stopping illegal crossings.
“These examples are just the latest in what I see as New York Democrats devaluing what it means to be a citizen of our country and legal resident of our state," Ortt told WBEN. "New York Democrats are more concerned with the woke ideology of a Sanctuary State, welcoming illegal aliens and writing blank checks to support them all while slashing the budgets of our schools and essential services to taxpayers in order to provide over $4.3 Billion to asylum seekers."
Ortt cites state and federal policies are interfering with our local law enforcement ability to protect the northern border as well as the southern border. One example is the green light law, which prohibits federal immigration authorities from seeing DMV database records. "So if there's a car, New York plate, federal immigration authorities do not know who's in that car, who that car is registered to, and they don't know, certainly if that person is in this country illegally. That even extends, I found out, if there's a stop made in a different state. So if a New York vehicle is stopped in Florida, federal immigration officials would have no way to know they would have no way to view those," explains Ortt.
Ortt says it would have made no difference if the House passed the bipartisan border bill this week. "There is no piece of legislation that needs to be passed to protect and enforce existing federal immigration law," notes Ortt. "There simply isn't the notion that Congress needs to create the border, we already have a border. We already had federal immigration law."
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Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti says he's been working with lawmakers and other law enforcement agencies to deal with the illegal border crossings. He says Lewiston residents are expressing concerns. "[They're] coming from Canada, either by small boat rafts, certainly causing a concern in the surrounding area in Lewiston Porter area where people have seen these crossings, and then the illegals coming up and maybe going through neighborhoods," says Filicetti.
Filicetti says the problem is worse east of Niagara County, in the North Country. "The conversation absolutely needs to include the northern border, because people are crossing in. It's the safety of our communities, the safety of our country here that is certainly at stake,' says Filicetti.