Photo: AFP
The tempest of emotions unleased by the New York Post report about migrant shelter placement in various zip codes in New York City continues to simmer. Queens politicians and community leaders are especially outraged that their neighborhoods are taking on the overwhelming brunt of the problem, with 70 of the 193 migrant shelters popping up in that borough alone. City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, who represents District 19 in Northeast Queens, has been among the most vocal critics of the shelter plan and sanctuary city designation. She appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to voice her displeasure without pulling any punches.
“The biggest problem we have is the Venezuelan migrants,” Paladino told Berman and Riedel. “Everybody knows it. They’re tying up with the gangs, and they have become ruthless, and so long as nothing that they do is considered a real crime, whereas they will be locked up for a period of time… once they’re arraigned, it doesn’t take long; they’re out on the street again. They’ve got this down-pat; this is third-world crime going on in our city right now and it’s absolutely out of control.”
In her typically blunt style, Paladino then laid the blame for the city’s problems squarely on President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. “There is absolutely no place to lay this blame except at Biden’s feet, and now they’re talking about that cackling witch that we call our Vice-President… She has never even been to the border. She really needs to just shut up, and I think everybody’s had it with her… and when he didn’t do his job at the border, (and) she’s never visited the border, we all ask ourselves now more than ever, who is running this country?”
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