Gov. Andrew Cuomo. | AP Photo/Hans Pennink Cuomo: 'As a New Yorker, I am a Muslim'

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo repeated Sunday that attorneys in his administration will do what they can to help travelers detained at the state’s airports under President Donald Trump's executive order restricting the entry of people from seven majority-Muslim nations.

Cuomo, a Democrat, made the promise during a press conference at his office in Midtown Manhattan. It was coupled with strong statements of support for immigration and a denunciation of Trump’s order, which Cuomo said was “the exact opposite of what I believe and what most New Yorkers believe because most New Yorkers are immigrants.”


“As a New Yorker, I am a Muslim. As a New Yorker, I am Jewish,” Cuomo said. “As a New Yorker, I am black, I am gay, I am disabled, I am a woman seeking to control her health and her choices because as a New Yorker we are one community and the New York community is composed of all of the above.”

His remarks came as thousands of people — and elected officials including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — rallied in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan, about four miles from Cuomo's office, and marched uptown to demonstrate their opposition to Trump's order.

State Sen. Mike Gianaris, a Democrat from Queens, said he would introduce a bill to prevent the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — which runs JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports — “from supporting the federal effort in any way, including through supporting personnel, the use of airport facilities under its control or the provision of electricity and climate control in areas of the airport being used for the detentions.”

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman joined with 15 colleagues from around the country in condemning the order as “unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful.” A spokeswoman said his office would assist attorneys who represent people detained at airports and would connect those who needed legal help with pro-bono lawyers at organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, which successfully stayed deportations of anyone detained pursuant to the order.

Cuomo said the state was setting up a hotline so families of people who may be detained can call to obtain legal assistance.

“You have an order, the order, first of all, has to be legal … it can’t on its face violate due process, equal protection. And then that order as applied to the individual has to be legal. You’re seeking to stop an individual because they violate the order,” Cuomo said on Sunday afternoon. “Well, what specifically do they violate in the order? Is that provision legal? And where do you see that this person violated that order? Do they have a green card? Do they have a visa? ...That analysis and the assertion of those facts is what people need help with, and my lawyers in the governor’s counsel’s office will serve as counsel for any detainee who needs legal assistance.”

Cuomo’s top counsel, Alphonso David, clarified that state lawyers would not actually take on detainees as clients. He said they would do everything they can to make sure they are “representing their interests,” including the possible filing of amicus curiae briefs or other actions.

Republican State Committee chairman Ed Cox said in a tweet that the governor's "hasty political grandstanding hurts his cause."

Sunday's press conference was the first time Cuomo has taken questions from the press in several days, and he touched on other issues related to the executive order. He repeated that he had directed the Port Authority to open up the AirTrain — which links subway lines to JFK airport — to people who wished to protest Trump’s action and said “it’s important the right to assemble is also protected.”

The governor did not weigh in on a move by the ride-hailing company Uber to remove surge pricing at JFK on Saturday night amid a solidarity strike by taxi workers, saying he didn’t have all the facts. Cuomo supports extending ride-hailing beyond New York City, and opponents of that proposal — and of Uber generally — seized on the decision with a social media campaign calling for people to delete Uber’s app.

An Uber spokeswoman said there was “confusion” about the timing of its pricing move, and that it was “not meant to break up any strike.” The company has set up a $3 million fund to help its drivers who are affected by the order.

The stated purpose of Cuomo’s press conference was to announce legislation that would make it a Class D felony for assaulting a worker at an airport — the same penalty on the books, Cuomo said, for attacking an employee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The governor announced the move after a Muslim woman was targeted and allegedly assaulted by a man at JFK airport last week.