First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Trump-endorsed Bruce Blakeman has vowed to deport illegal migrants accused of violent crimes and end New York's sanctuary policies on his first day in office — blasting Gov. Kathy Hochul for putting criminals ahead of New Yorkers and telling voters: "Let's get off the couch! Go vote!"
Watch: Blakeman's vow to end sanctuary policies (NY Post).
"The insanity is over, we're putting New Yorkers first," Blakeman declared at a rally in Chappaqua earlier this week, standing alongside the family of Sheridan Gorman — the 18-year-old Loyola University student gunned down by an illegal migrant. "On January 1st, as governor, I will sign an executive order. New York State is no longer a sanctuary state."
Blakeman, the Nassau County Executive, is the Republican nominee for governor, carrying President Trump's endorsement into the November 3 election against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. On Friday night he shared the stage with Trump himself at a packed rally at the Oncenter in Syracuse, where the president threw the full weight of his office behind the challenger.
Trump praised Nassau County as one of the safest places in America under Blakeman's leadership, then turned his fire on Albany. "New York needs to throw out this radical left lunatic and elect Bruce Blakeman," the president said, calling Hochul "clueless Kathy" and declaring of Blakeman: "Anything he ever touches turns to gold."
The immigration crackdown is the centerpiece of Blakeman's campaign — and he has the receipts. As county executive, his Nassau County built what supporters call the most comprehensive 287G agreement in the country, with both the police department and the sheriff's department cooperating with ICE. In a single year, the county removed 2,000 illegal migrants, many tied to attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery, drug dealing, and gang activity. "Not one church. Not one school. Not one hospital was raided," Blakeman says of the operation.
Trump used the Syracuse stage to hammer the same theme with hard numbers: "In less than two years, New York has released criminal illegal aliens with charges and convictions for over 48,000 crimes," he said, including thousands of assaults, robberies, rapes, kidnappings, and murders. "Democrats' sanctuary policies always put innocent lives at risk." He promised that if voters elect Blakeman and a Republican Congress, "we will ban sanctuary cities and sanctuary states at long last."
The rally came days after two violent incidents that have inflamed the immigration debate in New York: two illegal immigrants with criminal records allegedly stabbed an off-duty NYPD detective in the Bronx during an attempted robbery, and ICE officers shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, a suspected Trinitarios gang member with a long rap sheet, in the Bronx's Marble Hill neighborhood.
Hochul's camp has defended the state's policies and attacked Blakeman as an extremist. But the polls show a race: while Hochul leads statewide, Blakeman is ahead upstate and among independents. With Trump's machine now fully behind him, Blakeman's message is simple — New Yorkers first, criminals out, and the sanctuary era over on day one.