In recent days, the Governor has falsely claimed he is the son of "poor immigrants," an "undocumented" person, and a member of "the middle class"
In recent days, Governor Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly misrepresented his life story. The fabrications and misleading comments entail changing the circumstances of his birth, upbringing and current financial status, as follows:
1) According to a transcript from a public event on Tuesday, Cuomo said he was "raised by poor immigrants."
FACT: Cuomo was born to and raised by Mario Cuomo, a well known lawyer who became governor and was born in New York City, and mother Matilda, who was born in Brooklyn. He was raised by these parents. As to their family being poor, Mrs. Cuomo once said of her children, "They never ate out of cans. I had a written menu for every night." He was not raised by poor immigrants.
2) According to published reports, Cuomo made the following claim about his financial status on Tuesday: “I’m a middle class guy. That’s who I am."
FACT: According to Cuomo's Department of Health, the median household income in New York is between $60,000-70,000 a year. Cuomo was the son of a governor, who then worked as a partner at a corporate law firm representing real estate interests, sold a book for over $700,000, currently earns nearly triple the median salary, and lives in a more-than million dollar home. He is not a middle class guy.
3) According to reports, Cuomo said last week that he is "an undocumented person."
FACT: Andrew Cuomo is not undocumented. He is an American citizen who does not have to live in the shadows or face any of the challenges associated with undocumented persons.
"Governor Cuomo's recent pattern of falsehoods and exaggerations about his life story is a sad and disturbing turn of events for New York," said Antonio Alarcon, a Dreamer from Queens and member of Make the Road Action, the state's largest immigrant organization, devoted to fighting for working class New Yorkers. "It's sad because the governor of a state has lost credibility with his voters. It's disturbing because it serves to diminish and undermine the very real struggles of millions of New Yorkers."
"To Dreamers and immigrants like me, these fabrications are offensive. I’d like to refresh the Governor’s memory: contrary to the lies he’s telling the public, his parents were not immigrants, his family was not poor, and he has no idea what it’s like to live as an undocumented person," Alarcon added. "For those of us who came to this country with our parents to find a better life, and have struggled daily to get by and faced the threat of being torn from our family, it’s unbelievable that the Governor would try to claim to have shared our experience. It’s even worse coming from someone who has failed repeatedly to use his political capital for our community’s top priorities in Albany—including the New York Dream Act and passing driver’s licenses for all.”
"The governor owes us an apology," he concluded.
