ALBANY – President Trump’s executive order signed Wednesday is “a sham,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. He said the presidential order is meaningless because he will not waiver from his no-tolerance stance for immigrant families crossing the border.
There are reports of immigrant children separated from their parents being placed in Ulster and Westchester counties as well as around the state as Cuomo estimates as many as 700 kids placed in New York.
Cuomo wants to provide, at New York expense, healthcare for those children here, but he said Washington won’t even tell him where they are located.
“I have the legal right to know where the children are because I have the legal responsibility for the health and welfare of the children and we are now running into this federal gag order where the agencies can’t even tell us where the children are,” the governor said. “I sent a letter to the HHS secretary. It is absurd, inhumane and violative of the HHS secretary’s mission, and I believe, oath of office.”
Cuomo said the executive order was “a pirouette” and a move “to reduce political pressure.”
Meanwhile, the president of Children’s Village in Dobbs-Ferry told local government officials on Thursday that his organization, which has been caring for children for many years, said a number of those separated children have been placed there.
“These children are being cared for in the same manner as we care for all of the children in the program,” said Children’s Village President Jeremy Kohomban. “The focus of the US program is to reunify children with their families, not to separate them. We pride ourselves on that, and it will continue to be our primary objective for all children who enter the program.”