An overwhelming number of New Yorkers support deporting illegal-migrant criminals, a new poll reveals.
Nearly 80% of New Yorkers statewide told Siena College pollsters that they back kicking out undocumented migrants who have been convicted of a crime, with that figure including 69% of Democrats and 71% of Latinos, the survey released Monday says.
The new numbers come as federal immigration officials have been conducting high-profile illegal-migrant arrests around the Empire State in the last week.
Siena also asked registered voters in the poll more specifically whether New York should support President Trump’s deportation initiatives, to which they were less enthusiastic.
Of the roughly 800 voters surveyed, 48% said New York should support the feds compared to 31% who think the Empire State should oppose the president’s efforts.
Fewer than two months ago, another Siena poll found that more than half of that survey’s respondents said New York should support Trump’s promises to deport people who are in the country illegally.
Siena Poll spokesman Steve Greenberg wrote in a statement of the latest poll, “New Yorkers continue to say – at least Republicans and independents do – that the state should support federal efforts to deport illegal migrants.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul has refused to lay out a clear strategy herself on immigration despite promising one in December as Trump was getting ready to take office.
While she says she supports going after migrants with criminal records, Hochul has remained silent – or apparently twisted the truth – on sanctuary cities in New York that limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“If they’ve been convicted of a crime here; if they have a warrant for an arrest, there is cooperation from state and local officials — that is nothing new,” Hochul said on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Sunday.
But just last week, Acting Deputy US Attorney General Emil Bove ripped an upstate sheriff for ignoring a warrant for a migrant who’d pleaded guilty to an assault charge.
Asked about that case, a rep for the governor told The Post, “We won’t comment on individual cases,” and, “We understand different municipalities have varying policies regarding cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”
The latest Siena poll showed that a majority of New Yorkers want to send Hochul packing, too, with 57% of respondents indicating they’d prefer someone else to run in 2026 compared with a mere 31% who say they’d support the incumbent gov.
“Governor Hochul’s favorability and job approval ratings continue to languish in negative territory,” Greenberg said. “Currently, 57% of voters – including 41% of Democrats – would prefer ‘someone else’ as their next governor. Only 22% think her administration has improved the state’s fiscal condition over the last year, compared to 52% – including a small plurality of Democrats – who say she hasn’t.”
This poll marks a full year since Hochul has had a positive favorability rating.
Only 39% of respondents rated her favorably in Siena’s most recent poll, compared with 47% who rated her unfavorably.
“Her favorability rating has never once hit 50% in a state where 49% of voters are Democrats,” Greenberg noted. “Never once have a majority of voters viewed Hochul favorably, and at present, only 55% of Democrats view her favorably.”
Still, several key policies of Hochul’s remain popular.
Voters overwhelmingly told Siena – 71% in favor compared to 12% opposed – that they support the governor’s surge of NYPD cops in the subways.
A majority also said they back Hochul’s proposal to require school districts to ban most student phone use during the school day, with 62% in favor compared to 21% opposed.
In addition, poll respondents were generally supportive of loosening the criteria in which someone can be involuntarily committed to a mental health facility – 51% to 21%.
Still the voters don’t appear to trust Hochul to manage the state’s finances – just weeks after she proposed cranking up spending again to the tune of $252 billion. Only 22% of those surveyed say they believe New York is in a better fiscal position than a year ago.
– Additional reporting by Aneeta Bhole
