TORRES’ IMMIGRATION SHIFT: In 2021, Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres led an effort to eliminate funding for a controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s program that facilitated collaboration between local law and federal authorities. Just four years later — as he eyes a run for New York governor — his views couldn’t be more different. “When I first entered politics, I was on the left on the question of migration,” Torres said during a press conference at his district office this morning. Now, Torres is advocating for undertaking some deportations, telling his more than 200,000 followers on X that “even though law enforcement should prioritize the most violent criminals for deportation, I will no longer put myself in the position of defending anyone who commits any crime.” “I had no concept of what it was like to live in a border state. But the waves of migration that we saw since 2022 were so overwhelming that it was deeply destabilizing to the city,” he told reporters today. His ramping up of rhetoric on immigration comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul — whom he’d be trying to unseat if he enters the race — has also embraced calls to deport migrants who have committed crimes. “If someone breaks the law, I'll be the first one to call up ICE and say, 'Get them out of here,’” Hochul said in November. Torres is now fiercely opposed to the construction of a 2,200 bed temporary men’s shelter in the South Bronx for migrants. “Stop treating the Bronx as a dumping ground,” he said. “The city's decision to single out the Bronx for the siting of a 2,200 bed migrant men's shelter is typical of the second class treatment the Bronx has historically been given.” “No other community anywhere in this state is expected to absorb the impact of a men's shelter on the scale of 2,200 beds,” he said and called the shelter “destructive” to the Bronx due to potential violence and organized crime. He was also willing to end the city’s “right to shelter” law for people who aren’t long-term residents of New York City. “The notion that anyone, anywhere on earth could come here and then be automatically guaranteed permanent shelter, that's not something we can afford,” he said. “New York City does not have unlimited resources for unlimited migration. We’re not the Garden of Eden.” Torres particularly criticized underinvestment in the Bronx while the city funded shelters and other programs for recently arrived immigrants. He also emphasized he is in favor of deporting migrants who have committed violent crimes. “An undocumented immigrant who's been rooted in the community for a long time, who's contributing to our economy and society and who has no criminal record, you should be protected from deportation,” he said. “But if you are a rapist or a murderer or a sex offender” then you should be prioritized for removal. Yet Torres voted for the Laken Riley Act that includes undocumented migrants who are accused of nonviolent theft-based crimes — like shoplifting — as candidates for deportation. In March, he voted against last year’s version of the bill. Torres said he trusted law enforcement and prosecutors to have ‘discretion’ when pursuing migrants who are accused of crimes and to prioritize those who he said pose “public safety risks.” These views also put him at odds with other New York Democrats, such as Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who also represents parts of the Bronx and was undocumented when he arrived in the United States from the Dominican Republic. Espaillat had voted against the Laken Riley Act twice. “Everyone is entitled to due process and there's already 170 offenses — violent offenses for the most part— that are subject to arrest, conviction, and deportation,” Espaillat said during an event for the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Monday. “[The new laws are] done to cast out a wider net and then include people that commit what they call offenses of moral turpitude,” he added. Other Democrats denounced that there is not enough funding to implement the bill. When Torres was asked if he still supports his 2021 push to cut funding for the program that allowed ICE to collaborate with local officials, he responded by saying the circumstances are different today, something he blamed Hochul for. “The single greatest difference between then and now is a $10 billon migrant crisis, which has fundamentally reshaped how most New Yorkers, including myself, view the issues of immigration and border security,” he said in a statement. “Kathy Hochul’s catastrophic mismanagement of the migrant crisis contributed heavily to the Democratic Party’s defeat in the 2024 election. Unlike Kathy Hochul, whose name at the top of the ticket in 2022 cost Democrats five Congressional seats, I have an interest in learning from our party’s failures and winning elections.” Hochul’s spokesperson Jen Goodman responded: “Ritchie’s refusal to take a clear stance shows he lacks the principles, moral clarity, and backbone that New Yorkers deserve,” Goodman said. “His consistent pattern of waffling on key issues from defund the police to immigration isn’t just weak — it’s a disservice to his constituents, proving he’s more interested in serving himself than the people he was elected to represent." — Cris Seda Chabrier
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