Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is campaigning on a “guest worker” program for “undocumented” laborers who have lived in the US for seven years and haven’t committed a crime.
Blakeman, in a mailer sent to voters in suburban Westchester County, said he would “protect undocumented labor that helps Westchester families,” in a policy that differentiates him from the Trump administration.
Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, insisted during a Post interview that his support for a guest worker program wasn’t a break from Trump, who endorsed him, and not inconsistent with a cooperation deal with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement he struck in Nassau.
“So what I’m doing is talking to a number of Republican legislators in Congress who feel there should be a guest worker program for two reasons: One, it’s common sense. Two, it’s compassionate,” Blakeman said during a campaign stop Sunday near Yankee Stadium.
“I think we should have a guest worker program because the farmers need those workers,” ha added. “Hospitality, healthcare, landscapers, there’s a lot of different industries that need those workers, and so that makes common sense.”
Blakeman, who has previously mentioned the policy during his campaign, also said there should be a “path for legality” for illegal or undocumented laborers who haven’t committed a crime.
“If you’ve been here and haven’t gotten in trouble, you’re gainfully employed, you’re not on welfare, there should be a path for legality. Not citizenship, but legality,” Blakeman said.
“This isn’t an amnesty program. This is a guest worker program.”
New York has a large farming industry in parts of upstate New York and Suffolk County that relies on migrant labor.
In addition, thousands of hospitality and restaurant workers in New York crossed the border illegally and are undocumented, but they are a significant segment of the workforce.
States such as New York are legally barred from issuing work permits for migrants.
Hochul looked into the matter during the peak of the migrant crisis, but said New York was constrained by federal law.
Guest worker visa programs (H-2A, H-2B, H-1B) are managed by the federal government — the U.S. Department of Labor, Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of State.
Governors cannot issue work visas directly, but they can help migrants apply with employers to obtain federal work authorization, which is what the Hochul administration helped hundreds of migrants do in 2023.
Hochul’s campaign said Blakeman was trying to have it both ways on immigration enforcement.
“Bruce Blakeman does everything he can to empower ICE’s masked agents as they kill American citizens, brutalize Long Islanders, and arrest people who haven’t been charged with a single crime. He’s promised to ‘never be disloyal’ to MAGA and Trump’s extreme, pro-ICE agenda, and every day he makes that crystal clear,” said Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki.
Her campaign noted a recent report finding that a majority of migrants detained in Blakeman’s Nassau County had no criminal record.
