Synagogues and other targets could face greater risk if the Trump administration keeps withholding $87 million in federal counterterror funding from the state, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned on Tuesday.
The mayor and governor, who were joined by state and local law-enforcement officials at a press conference in midtown Manhattan, called on the federal government to release the money, which they said was withheld and which supports bomb squads, intelligence operations and other counterterror programs across the state.
Speaking 10 days before the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which coincides with the start of Rosh Hashanah this year, Hochul accused the Trump administration of “abandoning” New York’s police and firefighters.
“If you don’t release the counterterrorism funding, you’re betraying every family that lost someone on 9/11,” she said. “You’re betraying every police officer and firefighter who puts their lives on the line every single day, and you’re betraying every New Yorker who no longer believes that the federal government is there to protect them.”
Hochul told reporters that she would “stand with law enforcement any day of the week over what we’re seeing out of the Trump administration, which is to deflect from what’s happening with the war in Iran, the fact that prices keep going up, the fact that they’ve broken every other promise.”
“Shame on you for withholding this money, not delivering it to me right now, 10 days before we honor those lives that were lost from 9/11,” she said.
Terrence O’Leary, commissioner of the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, said at the press conference that the money helps fund local resources used to respond when synagogues and other institutions receive threats.
“With the uptick in swatting, where someone from anywhere in the world can pose a threat to our synagogues, our churches and our schools, you can’t just reopen those schools right away,” O’Leary said. “You need local resources that are going to go in and make sure that that building is actually safe. That is part of what this funding goes to.”
The funding supports 12 bomb squads statewide and hazardous-materials teams, canine units, tactical teams, cybersecurity operations, intelligence sharing and training for local law-enforcement agencies, O’Leary said.
The Trump administration withheld $187 million in homeland-security funding from New York last year, according to Hochul. After she appealed directly to Trump, the president stated that it was “an honor to reverse those cuts,” she said.
New York later recovered $100 million through federal litigation, with $87 million still outstanding, according to O’Leary.
The cuts affect two federal grant programs. Funding through the Urban Areas Security Initiative, which supports counterterrorism efforts in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area, would fall from about $156 million to $92 million.
New York City would lose about $55.6 million under that program and another $11 million through the State Homeland Security Program, O’Leary said.
Mamdani said that the cuts could make it harder for the city to respond to emergencies.
“We know that we live in a complex and fast-moving threat landscape,” he said. “That is precisely why the federal government’s refusal to provide $87 million in critical public safety and emergency readiness funding that was promised is so unacceptable.”
JNS asked City Hall if the federal funding that it says has been withheld could make it harder to protect Jewish New Yorkers, particularly during the High Holidays, which begin on Sept. 11 at night.
Sam Raskin, a spokesman for Mamdani, told JNS that “members of the New York City Police Department work around the clock to make sure every New Yorker is safe and will continue to do so regardless of the federal government’s decisions.”
“Jewish New Yorkers are an integral part of the fabric of this city, and every New Yorker should be able to practice their faith, participate in public life and go about their daily lives free from hatred and intimidation,” Raskin told JNS. “We’ll continue using every tool available to root out hate in all its forms.”
A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told JNS that Hochul is “manufacturing a funding crisis despite New York sitting on more than $300 million in unspent federal homeland security funding.”
“For more than two decades, New York has received substantial federal homeland security funding,” the FEMA spokesman told JNS. “In fact, they traditionally received allocations significantly above risk-based formulas, allowing them to rake in more and more money than other states.”
“Instead of falsely accusing President Trump of defunding law enforcement, Gov. Hochul and Mayor Mamdani should answer a much simpler question: Why is New York and New York City demanding even more taxpayer money when it has failed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars already provided to protect its communities?” the FEMA spokesman said.
Hochul was asked during the press conference about Hasan Piker, an antisemitic streamer who has drawn criticism, in part, for saying that “America deserved 9/11.” Piker has also criticized American Jews who support Israel, and some Democrats have faced scrutiny for appearing with him on the campaign trail.
“I clearly condemn those vile remarks,” Hochul said. “No, that is not acceptable in this country. It’s not acceptable here in the state of New York.”
The governor said the approaching Sept. 11 anniversary should be a time to honor the victims and their families.
Pressed about fellow Democrats who have appeared with Piker, Hochul said, “I can’t speak for members of my party. I speak for myself.”
At a separate press conference held at roughly the same time in New York City, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said that federal agents had arrested more than 2,100 illegal immigrants in New York during a monthlong enforcement operation dubbed “Operation Rotten Apple.”
Mullin accused the Hochul and Mamdani administrations of making New York less safe through their immigration and sanctuary policies.
Asked about Mullin’s claim that all of those who were arrested were criminals, Hochul warned reporters not to “fall for that.”
“There’s no way that that number constitutes people who committed crimes the way we consider a crime a crime in New York state,” she said. “They consider anybody who crossed the border a criminal.”
“There are different statistics, and I can get them for you,” she said. “Sometimes four out of five people who are being detained as criminals have no criminal record at all. Zero. Their crime is being here.”
Mamdani rejected Mullin’s claim that New York City had become less safe.
“I don’t know how you describe a record low of murders and shootings as being anything other than something that should be celebrated,” he said.
Hochul also challenged Mullin to release the funding while he was in New York.
Asked whether she would go to Mullin’s press conference if he had the money, Hochul said, “I’ll go anywhere and pick up a check.”
“He’s got a check, I’ll be there,” she said.
