Why Joe Biden didn’t meet Kathy Hochul about NY migrant crisis

WASHINGTON — President Biden didn’t meet with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul when she visited the White House on Wednesday to discuss the Empire State’s flood of migrants because there was “a lot going on” and he “has a lot on his plate.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday justified Biden blowing off Hochul, who last week demanded that he do more to address New York’s migrant “humanitarian crisis” — though the 80-year-old commander in chief had a seemingly non-time-sensitive meeting Wednesday afternoon with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

“Well look, as you just stated, there’s a lot going on,” Jean-Pierre said in response to a question from CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe.

“His chief of staff [Jeff Zients] met — was part of that meeting, I believe [Homeland Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas was part of that meeting, some of his very high-level senior staff participated in the meeting with the governor, which is as you said a very important meeting to have,” Jean-Pierre said.

“He has a very good relationship with the governor. We’ve been — every time we’re in New York, the president — practically every time — the president engages with the governor.”

“Look, the president has a lot on his plate,” his top spokesperson continued.

“As you said, this is an important issue as well. But when you have the chief of staff, when you have the secretary of homeland security there meeting with the governor, I think that shows how important the president thought this meeting was.”

Zients, who met with Hochul, has an office mere seconds from the Oval Office and high-profile visitors to the White House can sometimes get an unexpected drop-in with the president, though that wasn’t the case for Hochul.

Biden’s first public event on Wednesday focused on Hurricane Idalia and began in the White House Roosevelt Room at 2:44 p.m. — after he spoke on the phone with Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), Brian Kemp (R-Ga.), Henry McMaster (R-SC) and Roy Cooper (D-NC). 

Following brief public remarks, in which he claimed that his Delaware home “almost collapsed” as a result of a small kitchen fire in 2004, he met privately with members of his Cabinet and then held a private meeting with Sanders.

Sanders, who as a member of the Senate resides in Washington, did not give any indication that his meeting with Biden was about an urgent matter.

He told reporters afterward that “much more needs to be done” to push forward a set of perennial Democratic policies on issues such as climate change, income inequality and drug pricing — something unlikely to happen given Republican control of the House.

Hochul was shunned after publicly criticizing the Biden administration.

She wrote in a public letter to Biden last week that “the challenges we face demand a much more vigorous federal response.”

“With the arrival of over 100,000 asylum seekers and migrants in the past year, coupled with the sustained arrival of hundreds if not thousands to the City every week, the federal government must partner with the City and State in handling this humanitarian crisis,” she wrote.

Illegal immigration broke all-time records after Biden took office in 2021 — with his administration gradually allowing greater numbers of migrants to remain in the US to await court dates for asylum requests.

The Biden administration also launched migrant “parole” programs that allow significant numbers of those applying for asylum to lawfully enter the US to await adjudication of their claims.

After Hochul’s meeting, the White House said it would increase efforts to educate eligible migrants of their ability to apply for work permits to lighten the burden on state and local officials to house them.

A readout also highlighted a request made this month to Congress for additional funding.