NY Gov. Hochul says state looking at colleges to house migrants amid NYC spillover

New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking at state university campuses as potential sites to house migrants as New York City buckles under an unprecedented inflow of new arrivals and looks to Albany for support.

"We are looking at all state assets to help ameliorate the problem which is at a crisis level here in the city of New York, so yes, SUNY [State University of New York] campuses are part of the inventory of what we're looking at," the governor said this week, according to ABC7.

New York City, a sanctuary city, has faced an unprecedented number of migrant arrivals in recent months, in part due to Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's policy of busing new arrivals to sanctuary cities in a bid to highlight the Biden administration's lax approach to border enforcement.

Democratic Mayor Eric Adams has attempted to bus migrants out of the city and into neighboring counties in the face of capacity shortages, though that effort has met legal challenges.

"We are looking at many SUNY campuses right now. And again, there's a sense of urgency," Hochul said. "So we'll be announcing very soon an offering to the mayor which sites. [W]e have to make sure that they will work, the timing works, the students are gone. And then we'll be able to talk to the mayor and his team about what use they want to have."

She has not specified the campuses, though the outlet pointed to Buffalo and Stony Brook as potential candidates.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.