Most NYers Want Illegal Migrant Criminals to be Deported

By: Hellen Zaboulani

A large majority of New Yorkers, and even Latinos, support the deporting of illegal migrants who have committed crimes.

As reported by the NY Post, a Siena College poll taken in New York State shows that a whopping 79 percent of New Yorkers responded that they support booting out undocumented migrants who have been convicted of a crime. This overwhelming majority includes 69% of Democrats and 71% of Latinos, per the survey published Monday. The poll also asked registered voters more specifically if NY should support President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda. To this the responses were less enthusiastic—with about 48 percent of the approximately 800 voters polled answering yes, while 31 percent said the state should oppose the president’s initiatives.

In an earlier Siena poll, taken about two months ago, over half of the New York respondents had said the state should support Trump’s vowed efforts to deport illegal migrant criminals. Siena Poll spokesman Steve Greenberg wrote in a statement regarding the latest poll, “New Yorkers continue to say – at least Republicans and independents do – that the state should support federal efforts to deport illegal migrants.”

Per the Post, Gov. Kathy Hochul has still not presented a clear plan on her take of a solution for the migrant crisis, despite promising to come up with a solution in December before President Trump took office. Though she has not explicitly expressed her stance, Gov. Hochul did say her government would cooperate with feds who have a warrant for migrants with criminal records, despite New York being a self-proclaimed sanctuary city. “If they’ve been convicted of a crime here; if they have a warrant for an arrest, there is cooperation from state and local officials — that is nothing new,” Hochul said Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend”.

Despite this professed cooperation, last week Acting Deputy US Attorney General Emil Bove pointed to an upstate sheriff for ignoring a warrant for a migrant who had pleaded guilty to an assault charge. Gov. Hochul’s rep had commented telling the Post: “We won’t comment on individual cases,” and, “We understand different municipalities have varying policies regarding cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”

The same Siena College poll released Monday, also showed NY voters’ lack of support for Hochul. Some 57 percent of respondents said they would prefer someone else to run for governor in 2026 compared, while only 31 percent responding that they would who back the incumbent. “Governor Hochul’s favorability and job approval ratings continue to languish in negative territory,” Greenberg said.

“Currently, 57% of voters – including 41% of Democrats – would prefer ‘someone else’ as their next governor. Only 22% think her administration has improved the state’s fiscal condition over the last year, compared to 52% – including a small plurality of Democrats – who say she hasn’t.” The poll is hardly the first showing low favorability for Hochul, rather marks a full year since Hochul had a positive favorability rating.

Just 39 percent of voters rated her favorably in the latest poll, compared with 47% who rated her unfavorably. “Her favorability rating has never once hit 50% in a state where 49% of voters are Democrats,” Greenberg said. “Never once have a majority of voters viewed Hochul favorably, and at present, only 55% of Democrats view her favorably.”

NY voters have particularly expressed their lack of confidence in the current governor’s ability to manage the state’s finances.