Gov. Hochul and Mayor Mamdani on Tuesday demanded President Trump’s administration fork over $87 million in unpaid federal counter-terror funding as the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks draws near.
The New York leaders trashed the White House for holding up the aid to New York City, state and other government entities even after Trump claimed last year he would order the release $187 million in stalled funds.
Flanked by uniformed cops and fire officials at City Hall, Hochul said Department of Homeland Security leaders should be ashamed over holding up a big chunk of the funding after paying out $100 million.
“Shame on you for withholding this money and not delivering it, 10 days before we honor those lives that were lost on 9/11,” Hochul said, “They know they owe us the money. They ought to come over here right now and deliver that check.”
Mamdani said the unpaid money represents the feds reneging on a “sacred obligation” to help prevent another terror attack on a city that remains a top global target.
“The federal government’s refusal to provide $87 million in critical public safety and emergency readiness funding that was promised is so unacceptable,” he said. “At the very moment we should be strengthening the system that protects New Yorkers, the federal government is walking away from that responsibility.”
He said the federal cash bankrolls 12 bomb squads in the city, communication equipment for fire and rescue workers who would respond to any terror attack and planning for a potential nuclear attack.
“In some cases, without these federal dollars, that work becomes impossible,” the mayor added.
A spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the funds, claimed New York has failed to spend $300 million in other Homeland Security funding and has traditionally received a bigger share of counterterror funding than its “risk profile” would dictate.
“Why is New York and NYC demanding even more taxpayer money when it has failed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars already provided to protect its communities?” the spokesperson said.
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A member of the NYPD Transit Bureau Anti-Terrorism Unit investigates an incident in transit on April 12, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Ironically, the demands came as DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin appeared at his own press event in lower Manhattan to boast of detaining more than 2,000 undocumented immigrants in New York City in the past month as Trump pushes his mass deportation campaign.
“Operation Rotten Apple did what sanctuary politicians in New York City and the state of New York refuse to do: made the Empire State safer,” Mullin said in a statement. “We won’t let sanctuary politicians stand in our way.”
Mullin also criticized a new state law that requires New York counties, including Long Island’s Nassau County, to scrap agreements that allowed closer cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Critics, including Mamdani and Hochul, call those pacts a distraction for local law enforcement who should be focused on fighting crime, not rounding up immigrants.