Markwayne Mullin didn\u2019t just come to New York City on Tuesday to tout ICE\u2019s arrest of 2,000 immigrants in the Big Apple over the last month. He apparently also came to lie about New York.<\/p>\n
The Homeland Security secretary disparaged New York, America\u2019s largest city, as \u201ccrime-ridden,\u201d in his words, <\/a>while using the Sept. 1 press conference at 26 Federal Plaza<\/a> as a soapbox to deride what he called the \u201cliberal government\u201d under the leadership of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mullin was particularly ornery over their recent efforts to withdraw local enforcement cooperation with ICE\u2019s ongoing immigration crackdown and the city\u2019s more than two-decade-old \u201csanctuary city\u201d policies protecting immigrants, regardless of their status, living in the Big Apple. On that front, his grievances over that were no surprise, given his political leanings.<\/p>\n But for Mullin to stand before the press, representing the federal government, and slur New York as a \u201ccrime-ridden city\u201d that somehow needs the federal government to \u201crestore law and order\u201d is just insulting beyond belief. And it\u2019s a flat-out lie.<\/p>\n Worse, it\u2019s also a slap in the face at the New York Police Department, the best police force in the country, because it has brought crime down tremendously over the past three decades, and especially this year.<\/a> Murders and shootings fell to record-low levels year-to-date through July. Overall crime is also dropping to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n New York streets are full of life. The subways are teeming with commuters. Hotels are full of visitors and restaurants are full of patrons. Real estate values are up, and businesses are opening all across this city.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of these positive developments are due, in no small part, to the NYPD\u2019s ability to keep law and order on the streets of this great city \u2014 even with a staffing shortage.<\/p>\n Mullin sought to highlight a few of the \u201crotten apples\u201d that ICE agents have arrested during operations in New York over the past month. He picked a handful of cases involving real criminals who truly have no business being in the U.S. \u2014 murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, sex criminals, etc.<\/p>\n The fact, however, is that the \u201cworst of the worst\u201d only represents a small percentage of the thousands of people whom ICE has detained in New York.\n<\/p>\n