NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Gov. Hochul Gets Grilled at Immigration Hearing, Seven New Yorkers Sue the State Over Stolen SNAP Benefits, NY Lawmakers Revise Bill for Bad Drivers, and NYC’s Parking Lot Bar Gets Backlash

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul testified before Congress Thursday about New York’s immigration policies. Plus, a group of New Yorkers is suing the state, alleging it hasn't done enough to protect their food assistance benefits from being stolen. Also, state lawmakers are stalled on a bill that would require speed limiters be put in the cars of some of New York’s most reckless drivers. And finally, a popular Chinatown bar became a destination last summer, now it’s receiving community backlash.

Governor Hokel gets grilled at an immigration hearing in D.C. A group of New Yorkers sue the state over stolen snap benefits. New York state lawmakers revise a bill for bad drivers, and New York City's unofficial parking lot bar gets backlash. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. Governor Kathy Hockel testified before Congress Thursday about New York's immigration policies.

She appeared along with Minnesota's Tim Walls and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. I talked with WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine, who watched the hearing. He says much of the questioning focused on Hockel. It was mostly the New Yorkers on the panel and in the room who decided to pick on Hockel. And one of them is Congresswoman Elise Stefaniq, who represents the North Country. She's also pretty high up in the leadership of the House of Representatives. Finally, and most importantly, she's also considering a run for governor,

against Hockel in 2026. So she used her time to ask Hockel about undocumented immigrants who have been arrested for high-profile crime. She had a series of pictures and a series of names. And Hockel said she wasn't familiar with these people. She didn't know most of them. She said she wasn't familiar with their cases. And frankly, she didn't really get much of a word in as the Congresswoman rattled through. Listen here to the end of their exchange. We deserve a governor who stands up. for law-abiding New Yorkers doesn't put illegals first, but actually puts New Yorkers first. I appreciate the chairman. Rather than going after the viral moment, I suggest you look at the facts.

Oh. So it certainly did have political overtones. I would be surprised if we don't see that in some kind of future communication from Stefanix team. It was as substantive as you would expect a Capitol Hill hearing where Republicans control committee and the witnesses were brought as Democrats specifically chosen for their party. Yeah. What did Hokel say about New York's immigration policies? Well, the governor emphasized that there are plenty of times in which New York state officials do cooperate with U.S. immigration and customs enforcement and other federal immigration agencies. So that includes instances when people are convicted of state crimes in New York.

Hockel has continued an executive order that generally prohibits state employees from asking people about their immigration status unless it's necessary to determine whether someone is eligible for a. a state program or a state service, or if the state employee is legally required to ask. But the governor really hasn't stepped into the debate about local sanctuary policies, including the one that exists in New York City. There are some jurisdictions, including upstate Tompkins County and cities like Albany and Rochester, which have much stricter limits on when police can cooperate with ICE. Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, actually asked Hockel about an instance that took place in Tompkins County in the city of Ithaca. Hockel listened to the facts

where a person pleaded guilty despite being in the country illegally and ICE asked to have him detained. The suspect was not detained. Ice had to come and find him on the street. Hoko said she would have done it differently and that if the state had been in charge of that, they would have turned him over. How about Democrats? How did they react to the governors? Well, the Democrats on the committee used their time to accuse Republicans, as I said earlier of political theater. One woman, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, said that it was all felt like it was part of Donald Trump's reality TV style of governing. The Democrats also tried to emphasize Donald Trump's immigration policies and what they say is the harm that they caused.

They pointed to what's going on right now in Los Angeles, where the president has mobilized the U.S. Marines and he's federalized the National Guard in response to civil unrest that started with some mass deportations. One congressman from Florida, Maxwell Frost, asked the governors about the idea that they could actually face arrest. Hockel said she invited federal officials to come and try and arrest her. She wouldn't be intimidated. That's WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine. Stay close. There's more after the break. New Yorkers who have had their food assistance benefits stolen through a practice known as skimming are suing the state over outdated technology they say put them at risk. Seven New Yorkers enrolled in the nutrition program known as SNAP filed their lawsuit in federal court Thursday.

They say the state could prevent SNAP theft by updating electronic benefits cards to protect against hard-to-detect devices that skim people's personal information from card readers. State officials have previously said they would need to allocate additional funding to make the switch. Officials did not immediately comment on the lawsuit. The New York legislature is stalled on a bill that would require devices known as speed limiters be put in the card. of some of the region's most reckless drivers. The State Assembly has indicated that the bill, as it is, would not pass in this session, which ends on Tuesday. But now, the state Senate is making significant tweaks to the bill and hopes that a watered-down version will get passed.

So let's discuss a couple of the changes. For starters, the original bill set the threshold at six speeding or red-light tickets over a 12-month period. This revised bill increases that to 16 tickets. State Senator Andrew Gannardis is sponsored. He says the change was based on New York City's speed camera data. When we looked at the city's speed camera data, we saw that hundreds of thousands of cars had six or more tickets. And because we're starting a new program with these speed limiters and trying a different

way of cracking down on reckless driving, I personally felt it was important to get this right and start with a smaller, more manageable universe of the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst drivers. And this is the same thing we've done with speed cameras. and red light cameras. We started small and we grew it bigger over time. The updated version of the bill also no longer considers red light violations, only speed camera violations.

Gannardis says that's a change he's not really a fan of. I would have preferred to keep the red light cameras in. The data is really clear the correlation between those who recklessly run red lights multiple times and they're also the same people who speed. However, the conversations I had with my colleagues was that the speed limiting technology would not stop you from running a red light. It would just slow you down as you ran the red light. And they didn't feel the nexus was as strong as with speed cameras directly.

And so this was one of those compromises. I felt comfortable accepting the goal of furthering this legislation and moving it towards final passage, again, to establish a brand new program that we've never tried before. That's state Senator Andrew Gnardis. Last summer, GQ Magazine ran this headline. hottest club in New York City is a parking lot on Canal Street. Now, that parking lot is the target of a community backlash. WMYC's Ryan Kailath has more. Time again was the talk of downtown last summer,

with laissez-faire block party vibes. The bar's customers spilled into a dead-end stretch of Forsyth Street next door, though the bar lacked a permit for the space. This summer, the owners are playing by the rules and got city approval to close the road to traffic every evening. That would box out the many cars that park illegally in the cul-de-sac at night. At a community board meeting Tuesday, two dozen people decried the move, saying it'll attract noisy outsiders who aren't part of the Chinatown community. They called it gentrification and displacement. The Department of Transportation, which oversees outdoor restaurant space, said they'll consider community feedback before deciding whether to revise the terms. That's WMYC's Brian Carlythe. Thanks for listening to

NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.