Source: US State of New York

arlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on Telemundo 47 with Rosarina Bretón. The Governor spoke on Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York, the Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget, putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers and her proposal for distraction-free schools.

AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: So, let’s talk about business here in the great State of New York, and we understand all the immigration challenges that we have right now. You received a visit yesterday in Albany from Tom Homan, and he’s saying that he wants more ICE here in the city and the state. So, my question is, how are you going to protect the sanctuary city from ICE?

Governor Hochul: Well, he was very threatening when he arrived and what I want to remind everyone is that when it comes to someone who has committed a crime in their home country, committed a crime here or is on a terrorism watch list, we’ll help ICE remove individuals who could do harm to the residents, and the citizens, and the visitors and the undocumented who live here — I want to protect the entire community.

That’s my number one job is to protect people. So, we’ll provide assistance like we did under the Biden administration. I mean, this is not a new policy to assist ICE in those cases. But, I have been very clear: You will not come here and divide families, separate mothers from children — as we saw in the last Trump administration — to separate people who’ve done nothing wrong.

I mean, so many people came here, just like my immigrant grandparents — left great, great poverty. My grandfather left Ireland as a teenager; he became a migrant farm worker himself in South Dakota. It’s the only job he could find.

This is the immigrant story, and people came here fleeing either great poverty, or economic circumstances or even political persecution. They come here and we embrace them because we actually need them. Our economy thrives because of the people who come here willing to work hard and support themselves and their families, and that’s how we’ll be stronger as a state. So, we’ll help in one area, but in other areas, you know, we have said we will not, and that’s just our policy.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: So, good immigrants could be in peace?

Governor Hochul: I can’t stop them if they take a step beyond what we want them to do, but we will not cooperate with them. That is what sanctuary city means — that I will cooperate in certain circumstances. If you have a warrant for someone’s arrest, you know they’ve committed a crime, of course we’ll help you to protect our streets. But also, we’re not going to provide assistance in a situation where we just want to remove people because all they did was cross the border.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: Of course. And let’s talk about congestion pricing because a Siena Poll recently showed that a lot of New Yorkers are in favor. However, March 21 — the deadline that the Republican government gave — it’s approaching. Are you turning on or off the cameras?

Governor Hochul: We’re keeping the cameras on. I have said that. And when the Trump administration sent us a very threatening letter about this — and President Trump said, “I’m killing congestion pricing. Long live the King,” I reacted very negatively to that. I did a press conference in the subway and said, “We do not live under a king. We haven’t for 250 years in this country.” So, we stood up, said, “Our cameras are staying on,” and we’re going to do everything we can to fight this in the courts.

I believe we’ll be successful because it has had an incredible effect on people. Even those who opposed it first, those who are commuting into Manhattan, the Central Business District, are finding traffic is going faster. The businesses are seeing a lot more foot traffic, people stopping inside and more people are taking the subways. People are coming in from New Jersey, for example — they’re shaving off a lot of time in their morning commute. And the money will be used to build a Second Avenue Subway up in Harlem and help open up many more job opportunities for people to get to faster. And we’ll also connect infrastructure from Brooklyn to Queens through an expressway there as well — the Interborough Express, we call it.

So, we have a lot of great things. We’re going to keep investing in this. I know that so many people rely on this to get to their jobs, and their schools, and their doctor’s appointments and to see family. We can’t let anything happen to the subway system. It is our lifeline. But also, we have to have the money to support it as well.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: And I feel this is an adjustment and it’s going to take time, but we’ve seen the improvement and that’s very important.

Governor Hochul: Yes, we have.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: And Governor, let’s talk about money. Let’s talk about your Budget.

I know that you have a lot of good plans for our families, specifically hardworking families. And we know there’s a credit that being debated right now in the Legislature in Albany. What do you expect to happen with that important money that you want to give back to the people?

Governor Hochul: Here’s my issue: I’m very aware that New York families are struggling. I didn’t need an election to tell me that. I’ve known that for a long time. I’ve been fighting for affordability since I first became Governor three years ago. It is huge. People are paying for child care and utility bills and their rent, and just the cost of living is so high. Groceries cost so much. The cost of eggs keeps going up higher and higher — $11, $12 here in the City.

So, families are really hurting and what I wanted to do was find a way through my Budget — that I unveiled a couple months ago to put more money back into people’s pockets — because I said, “Your family is my fight. I will fight for them.” What are we looking to do? If you have children under the age of four — before I became Governor, there were no tax credits for the parents at all — you got zero. I put it to $330. I said, “Let’s triple it to $1,000.” If you have a child under the age of four, you’ll get a $1,000 check rebate or rebate on your taxes. If you have a school age child — $500. What about a tax cut? Middle class tax cut, the largest tax rate cut in 70 years — I proposed that as well.

Also, everybody knows inflation takes so much more money out of our pockets because everything costs more. So, I want to put it back in people’s pockets, right where it came from. We collected over $3 billion more in surplus sales tax revenue because the cost of everything was so much higher — little kids’ clothes and sneakers and backpacks. So, we’re going to give a rebate check for $500 to every single family.

When I walk around the bodegas, and I walk in the stores, people — when I tell them this — they are so excited. This could help with their utility bills and the grocery bills for if even for only a month. So, I want to do that. But also, making sure that across the state — the State will cover the cost of school breakfast and lunches, and that puts about $1,600 back in a parent’s pocket per child as well.

So, you add all this up — the inflation rebate, the tax cut, the savings from not having to cover the cost of lunches and everything else we’re doing — it adds up to about $5,000 back in the pockets of hardworking families with little kids. So, I want to get this done. The Legislature wants to do something else with the money for the inflation rebate — I disagree. I think we should do one shot this year and give it to everybody earning under $300,000. Let them know we’re paying attention, and I will fight for that. The Legislative process, the Budget process is just beginning and I know who I’m standing with — I’m standing with New York families.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: With your proposal for the free lunches, I posted a video on my social media — people were so happy about the idea. So, you can tell that it will be amazing for a lot of our families. Let’s talk about cellphones. A lot of legislatures — or some legislatures in Albany — they want to modify how you present the school ban cellphones in schools. What do you think about that?

Governor Hochul: I want to fight to accomplish the full bell-to-bell to ban distraction in schools, and to create a distraction-free environment. No smart phones, no ear buds, no cell phones, and here’s why: The mental health of our children, especially middle school and high school, is really declining — and a lot of it comes from what I heard from young women.

I’ve been in a roundtable in the Bronx with Latinas and girls asking, “What is going on in your lives?” And they said they’re under so much pressure; there’s bullying; they mock each other out and criticize their clothing and it makes them feel that they’re not invited to the parties where the cool kids are, and it’s taking them down to such a dark place. It’s really affecting their emotional wellbeing as well as their academic performance.

So, we need to get our kids back — let them have a childhood again. I mean, people my age and even my older children’s age, they didn’t have to deal with this distraction. Teachers cannot teach anymore. They’re competing with the cellphone. They just want to say, “Can I have that child all day long? And I’ll make them the best they can be.” And then after school, kids can do whatever they want.

But I will not water it down. I have to stand firm that we’re not going to just create this scenario where it’s in-and-out of the pockets all day long. It’s hard for the teachers. And I know a lot of parents stand with me on this. So, this is just one of the issues we have to take on in the legislature this year.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: And I’m so glad because we don’t want distractions. I’m a mom and I wish that my son would never see his cellphone on any school day. So, I’m very happy for that. We are going to talk about municipal politics because we know there’s a race coming up. There are 10 candidates and there’s a lot — you’ve been having a lot of pressure for Mayor Eric Adams to step down. You have the power to do so. I remember that you appointed — or a committee that would oversee him. What is Albany doing, because I know that you need an approval in order to have that all set.

Governor Hochul: That’s the Legislature. Here’s what happens: There are many, many people running for office. Historically, the governors and the mayors in this state, in this city, have been in conflict — a lot of fighting — and I’ve never thought that that was good for the residents of New York City. I also represent the 8.3 million residents of New York City. These are my constituents, I live here at least half of the week. I walk the streets. I go everywhere and I’m proud to do that. But I think that the Mayor and the Governor should be working together, hand-in-hand.

For example, when we talk about safety, I have done more than any Governor in the history of the state to help safety in the city. I’m, right now, using state dollars to pay for the overtime for the New York Police to be on our subways all night long — two police officers on every train. The subway crimes have gone down dramatically. The National Guard I put in the subways.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: Are you going to keep them?

Governor Hochul: I’m going to keep them, yes. I want people to feel the sense of security when they get on the subway system, and we’re making great progress. And helping get people’s mental health problems off the subways. The subways should not be a rolling homeless shelter either.

We have to focus on this. So, my point is, I want someone I can work with. Someone who will roll up their sleeves, understand my priorities are public safety, dealing with the mental health crisis, building more housing — that’s one of the reasons life is so expensive in the city because there’s not enough housing supply.

If we built more housing, more apartments, more affordable homes — people could afford to live here more easily. So, I’ve had to fight to get that done as well. I need a partner. So I know it’s complicated for everyone to look at all these choices, but I need someone who commits to working with me.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: What is your message to voters when we’re seeing so many candidates, like Mr. Cuomo?

Governor Hochul: Right, there’s many candidates to choose from. You know, certainly the incumbent Eric Adams is running for re-election. There’s a lot of candidates. We have a new entry, I know the Speaker just started. Speaker Adrienne Adams just joined the race. So, it’s a lot for people to process, but I think it’s a little bit early in the process. People still need to put out their agendas. See what they’re going to do for people, look through their past records, look at their life stories and it’s a lot to evaluate, but it’s really one of the most important decisions they’ll make this year.

And I will work with whomever the voters of this great city decide should be my partner, if they’re willing to do that. And so, it’ll be over in a few months, but there’s a lot more information to come out over the next few months between now and the end of June.

Rosarina Bretón, Telemundo 47: I appreciate so much that you took your time to sit down with the ethnic media today, and make your voice be heard with so many people that love you in our communities, and believe that you can protect them.

Governor Hochul: It’s a privilege to be with you, and this is something that’s important to me.

Ethnic media really is the voice of the community, so I pay close attention to the issues you raise, but also to have the opportunity to speak in my own voice to the community that I care so deeply about, that I really treasure, and I thank you. Muchas gracias.

MIL OSI USA News –