Rep. Nicole Malliotakis rips NYC official who suggested Staten Island should house more migrants

Don’t tread on Staten Island.

Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) on Monday slammed Queens Borough President Donovan Richards for suggesting that her borough hasn’t taken in its fair share of migrants.

Malliotakis said the Democrat only had himself to blame for his borough taking the brunt of the migrant crisis — with Queens being home to 36% of the taxpayer-funded shelters housing the new arrivals — after he supported “sanctuary city” policies.

“Staten Island did not vote for this mayor, governor or president and should not be subjected to their ridiculous policies,” Malliotakis fumed.

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“He, on the other hand, embraced all three and is now complaining about the mess their policies brought,” she said of Donovan.

“It’s not too late for him to condemn Biden’s open border policies, NYC’s right to shelter and apologize for voting with [former New York City mayor] Bill de Blasio to make New York more of a sanctuary city.”

Richards complained to The Post on Sunday that Queens was unfairly being overloaded – with his borough having more than one third one-third of all city-run migrant shelters on its turf.

“What about Staten Island?” he asked.

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The Post reported Sunday that the poorest neighborhoods in the five boroughs are taking a disproportionate number of the migrants flooding into the city – with Queens taking the brunt.

Queens is home to 70 of the 193 shelters being used to accommodate the about 65,300 migrants in city care. Long Island City alone has 23 government-run shelters, or 12% of the citywide total, with Jamaica and Briarwood having 20 combined.

Another 49 shelters are in Manhattan, 44 in Brooklyn, 25 in The Bronx and five are on Staten Island, according to the data obtained by The Post.

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Richards clapped back at Malliotakis’ barbs Monday, saying the congresswoman and Republicans are to blame for the border mess.

“The last I checked her friends — the governors of Texas and Florida — were sending migrants here,” Richards said.

He said Malliotakis and the GOP should have supported the “bipartisan” compromise immigration legislation proposed earlier this year to tighten the border “instead of kowtowing to Donald Trump’s broken policies.”

More than 203,900 migrants have passed through the Big Apple since spring of 2022 – with the number of arrivals now averaging about 1,100 per week as of June 16, according to City Hall.

Staten Island, with its heavily Republican voter base, has repeatedly fought back against the migrant wave that has inundated the five boroughs.

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