Politico

NEW YORK — New York City will receive a fraction of the federal aid it applied for to manage the asylum-seeker crisis, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said Friday — the same day the mayor announced a new program to send asylum-seekers to locations outside the five boroughs.

The administration applied for $350 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for costs associated with shelters, food and health care services for migrants. On Friday, the Adams administration learned it will be receiving only $30 million.

“Let us be very clear: This is both disappointing and woefully insufficient for a city that has carried the cost of sheltering, feeding, and supporting more than 60,000 asylum-seekers in the last year,” mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy said in a statement. “New Yorkers have stepped up tremendously throughout this crisis and we look forward to working closely with our congressional delegation to remedy this serious mistake.”

The Department of Homeland Security explained in a press release that the $322 million it earmarked Friday primary went to border communities like El Paso, Tx., which has been one of the main entry points for migrants coming to the country via Mexico.

“This first round of funding was focused primarily on the needs of border communities due to the urgencies they are confronting,” the department said in a statement. “Several interior cities also received funding. The City of New York received the most of any interior city by a significant margin given its challenges.”

The agency added that it would be dishing out a second round of funding totaling $360 million that will be focused on municipalities beyond the border that have also been destinations for asylum-seekers.

“It is anticipated that New York will again receive a significant share in that round,” the release noted.

Regardless, the snub to New York City is likely to add more tension to the relationship between Adams and President Joe Biden. Adams is one of the 20 top surrogates for the president’s reelection campaign. He has also been increasingly outspoken about the need for asylum-seeker aid, and has been calling out the White House and Biden by name.

On Friday, the mayor also announced a new program that would send New York City asylum seekers to the Hudson Valley in an effort to reduce the strain on the municipal budget and city shelters. Single men already in the city’s care will have the option to spend four months in Orange Lake and Orangeburg north of the city.

While details about the arrangement’s origins were unclear, Adams seemed to suggest New York City struck a deal on its own after failing to receive assistance from the federal government and the administration of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. Earlier this year, New York City declared a state of emergency and asked the state to help move migrants to other locations in New York.

“Despite calling on the federal government for a national decompression strategy since last year, and for a decompression strategy across the state, New York City has been left without the necessary support to manage this crisis. With a vacuum of leadership, we are now being forced to undertake our own decompression strategy,” Adams said in a statement.

The new program, however, will do little to solve the city’s problems.

Next week, a federal border policy called Title 42 is set to expire, and with it, tens of thousands of migrants currently waiting along the southern border are expected to enter the country and eventually make their way to cities including New York. A CNN report Friday indicated that, in anticipation, the city is looking to potentially house migrants in tents in Central Park, unused airplane hangers or building container homes.

“We have reached our limit of new shelters that we can open right now, and we currently have no other option but to temporarily house recent arrivals in gyms,” Levy, the mayoral spokesperson, said in a statement. “This week alone, we received hundreds of asylum seekers every day, and with Title 42 set to be lifted next week, we expect more to arrive in our city daily. We are considering a multitude of options, but, as we’ve been saying for a year, we desperately need federal and state support to manage this crisis.”

NEW YORK — The Biden administration on Friday cleared New York’s congestion pricing plan to move forward, approving an environmental review that suffered such significant delays many doubted the first-in-the-nation tolling system would ever happen.

The Federal Highway Administration issued a letter approving the New York Metropolitan Transportation’s Authority environmental assessment and issued a draft “Finding of No Significant Impact” that will now be up for public review for 30 days, according to a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO.

The news means the agency has been given the green light to start charging drivers entering central Manhattan at peak times in an effort to cut down on gridlock.

MTA officials have said they would need almost a year to set up the new tolling infrastructure once it obtains federal approval, putting it on track to meet its current target of launching congestion pricing in the second quarter of 2024.

A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul said the finding “is a critical step that will allow our Environmental Assessment to be publicly available for anyone to read, and we will continue to work with our partners to move congestion pricing forward.”

“Governor Hochul is committed to implementing congestion pricing to reduce traffic, improve air quality, and support our public transit system,” John Lindsay, a spokesperson for Hochul, said in a statement. “We’ve worked closely with partners across government and with community members over the last four years to develop a plan that will achieve these goals.”

The public transit authority hasn’t determined how much to charge drivers, but has considered fares ranging from $9 to $23 for passenger vehicles and between $12 and $82 for trucks. The scenarios contemplate different combinations of potential discounts, credits and exemptions.

A six-member Traffic Mobility Review Board will recommend a final pricing structure for the MTA board to approve. Members include major real estate and business leaders such as Kathy Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City that represents area corporations, and John Banks, the former president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

The state approved congestion pricing in 2019 to raise $1 billion annually for the MTA’s capital plan. But officials waited more than a year for the Trump administration to determine what kind of environmental review they had to conduct before launching the program. Federal approval is required because the plan involves placing tolls on highways that have received federal funding.

Transit officials said the Trump administration held up the process amid political infighting with New York, with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo once stating it was retribution for the state’s refusal to hand over driver’s license records to federal immigration authorities. In 2021, the Biden administration said New York could conduct an environmental assessment, instead of a more rigorous environmental impact study.

The new tolling system — which will come on top of existing charges for the George Washington Bridge and Lincoln and Holland tunnels — has also drawn opposition from a bipartisan coalition of suburban lawmakers in New York and New Jersey. It’s expected to face legal challenges.

One of President Joe Biden’s nominees to a federal appeals court serves on the board of a free-market advocacy group that has opposed Biden’s own positions on climate change, consumer protection and labor rights.

Michael Delaney, who is up for a seat on the Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals, has for the past five years been a board member of the New England Legal Foundation. He’s served on a committee that vets amicus briefs advancing the group’s pro-business and deregulatory positions. In recent years, the group filed briefs supporting mandatory arbitration clauses, opposing the issuance of a New Hampshire clean-water regulation and challenging a California policy that gave union organizers the right to enter commercial farms.

Most notably, in a momentous case at the Supreme Court, the group supported coal companies and red states that successfully challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to combat climate change. The Biden administration’s position in that case amounted to a “vast and improper expansion” of the EPA’s authority, the group told the justices in a June 2021 brief.

Delaney’s relationship with the organization, which has not been reported in the media until now, is just one of several aspects of his resume that causes concern among some progressives. He has already faced questions about his work defending an elite boarding school that was sued over sexual assault, and for signing a brief defending a state abortion restriction.

The White House continues to support Delaney, calling him “extraordinarily qualified” in a statement to POLITICO this week. The two senators from his home state of New Hampshire, both of whom are Democrats, are also standing behind him.

Delaney did not respond to a request for comment on this reporting. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to review his nomination at a markup on Thursday.

Delaney was New Hampshire’s attorney general from 2009 to 2013. He now heads the litigation department for McLane Middleton, a law firm with offices in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

In 2018, Delaney joined the board of the New England Legal Foundation, according to his Senate questionnaire. He is also on the foundation’s legal review committee. Daniel Winslow, the president of the foundation, told POLITICO that the committee members vet the foundation’s amicus briefs before they are filed.

Winslow added that he was not aware of Delaney weighing in on briefs since Winslow became the group’s head in October 2021, likely because he expected to be nominated to the bench. Biden tapped Delaney in January of this year, and the Senate Judiciary Committee held his nomination hearing in February.

The New England Legal Foundation’s website touts its “vigorous advocacy of free market principles” and describes its mission as championing “individual economic liberties, traditional property rights, properly limited government, and inclusive economic growth.” Its “About” page features a quote from John W. Davis, the U.S. solicitor general under former President Woodrow Wilson: “Property rights and civil rights are not essentially in conflict; they are two sides of the same coin.” Late in his career, Davis defended school segregation and the “separate but equal” doctrine before the Supreme Court in a companion case to Brown v. Board of Education, representing the state of South Carolina for free.

NELF’s June 2021 amicus brief in the climate change case urged the Supreme Court to take up the case and overrule a lower court that had sided with the EPA. After the justices agreed to hear the case, NELF filed another amicus brief in December 2021 opposing the administration’s position. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled against the EPA in a June 2022 opinion that Biden called a “devastating decision that aims to take our country backwards.” In the coming weeks, the EPA is expected to release a new climate change rule.

Winslow said the group’s work on the case was of a piece with its mission: Advocating for free enterprise, property rights, limited government and inclusive economic growth.

“Consistent with the rule of law, if you’re an agency, the boundaries of your conduct are set by the elected, accountable branch, Congress,” he said. “And when the administrative state goes beyond that boundary to the point of being unaccountable to the people directly — which Congress is — that violates our principle of rule of law, and that’s why we were involved in that case.”

Delaney graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994, according to his law firm bio. Five years later, he was heading the homicide prosecution unit in the New Hampshire attorney general’s office. He later served as counsel to the governor and then as the state’s attorney general before moving into private practice.

During Delaney’s time on NELF’s board, the group has filed amicus briefs siding with the Chamber of Commerce and a host of powerful companies, including Facebook, Uber and Deutsche Bank.

In the Uber case, NELF supported the company in a lawsuit brought by a blind man who alleged the rideshare app illegally discriminated against him by refusing to let him bring his guide dog on rides. Uber moved to force the resolution of the matter in arbitration rather than in court, citing its terms of service. NELF backed Uber, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court sided with the plaintiff.

That was just one of multiple cases where NELF worked to shore up companies’ rights to resolve disputes through mandatory arbitration. In its 2019/2020 report, the group detailed its work successfully defending arbitration before the Supreme Court in one case — known as Lamps Plus v. Varela — but noted that its efforts on another arbitration-related case — New Prime v. Oliveira — didn’t prevail.

Mandatory arbitration clauses have long drawn condemnation from progressives, who argue they result in customers and employees unwittingly ceding their rights to go to court, as the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen has detailed.

Biden himself has also criticized mandatory arbitration. Last year, he signed legislation banning the requirement in cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment. At the signing ceremony, he assailed the practice more broadly.

“Sixty million Americans are bound by forced arbitration clauses that were included in the fine print of their contracts,” he said. “And many don’t even know they exist. You might have signed one without knowing it. I strongly believe no worker should have to make such a commitment.”

NELF also filed a brief in an important 2021 Supreme Court case involving a clash between union organizers and private property rights. Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid involved a California regulation that gave labor organizers the right to enter the property of agricultural employers in order to speak with workers about joining a union. NELF sided with the companies challenging the regulation, and the high court ultimately found the regulation unconstitutional.

The Biden administration defended the California regulation in the case. So did a group of Democratic lawmakers: Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Jeff Merkley and Alex Padilla. In their brief, the senators listed NELF as one of several entities filing amicus briefs that are funded by “industry-tied foundations and anonymous money groups.”

NELF’s most recent annual report listed dozens of corporations, law firms and individuals as contributors. The report said the group got 45 percent of its 2020 revenue from corporate sponsors.

NELF also weighed in on a case related to a New Hampshire regulator’s effort to reduce dangerous PFAS contaminants — known as “forever chemicals” — in drinking water. NELF sided with 3M Company in its effort to block a rule reducing the presence of those contaminants. The group argued that New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services hadn’t done a proper cost-benefit analysis before tightening its regulations of the chemicals.

“Our amicus brief said, ‘Hey judges, let the legislature have the first crack at this issue,’” Winslow, the group’s president, said. “No, we don’t favor PFAS.”

PFAS contamination has been a major concern for the Biden administration, as the White House detailed in a fact sheet released this March.

Some advocates for liberal causes voiced concerns about Delaney’s nomination after being informed by POLITICO of his connection to NELF.

Jeff Hauser, the head of the progressive watchdog group Revolving Door Project, told POLITICO that he found Delaney’s nomination puzzling.

“The Biden agenda on economic issues, such as protecting workers and the environment, faces a judicial headwind from the conservative legal movement of which NELF and Delaney is a part,” Hauser wrote in an email. “That tension between the Biden Administration’s legal interests and Delaney’s revealed preferences makes elevating Delaney to the bench a confoundingly counterproductive idea.”

And Mike Kink, the head of the union-backed Strong Economy for All Coalition, said the Senate should seek more information about Delaney’s role at the group.

“Anyone who’s concerned about economic justice should be concerned about this nominee’s connections” to the foundation, Kink said. “The group Delaney helped head has shielded corporate polluters and fraudsters while fighting eviction protections for tenants and fair taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations. The Senate must closely question this nominee and assure Americans he’ll work on the bench for regular people who need the law on their side, not just for the rich and powerful.”

On the right, meanwhile, Delaney’s link to NELF is the opposite of a red flag.

“If in fact he is conservative-leaning, then perhaps it was not the best move for Republicans to oppose his nomination,” said Josh Blackman, a conservative law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston.

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said the president’s support for Delaney is unchanged. “We are unmoved by an affiliation the President’s extraordinarily qualified nominee disclosed to the public and the Senate months ago, in the most thorough and transparent way available,” Bates said. “This is also the first we have heard any concerns about this expressed at all; and we are skeptical of complaints that surface in the press before we have heard them privately.”

At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s February nomination hearing, members pressed Delaney on his work for a boarding school that was sued over its handling of a sexual assault, as POLITICO has detailed.

Delaney has also taken some heat from the left for signing a brief defending a New Hampshire abortion restriction when he worked in the New Hampshire attorney general’s office. The brief backed a New Hampshire law requiring minors to notify their parents before receiving abortions. The law has since been repealed.

But Delaney has received broad support from a host of other groups, including numerous former state attorneys general and the head of New Hampshire’s Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children.

His home state senators, Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, both strongly supported his nomination. Their spokespersons told POLITICO they still firmly back him.

“Before considering Michael Delaney’s nomination, Senator Shaheen reviewed his full record, which includes his fierce defense of LGBTQ rights, bringing criminals to justice and leading one of the most significant legal battles against a massive oil company in New Hampshire state history,” said Sarah Weinstein, a spokesperson for Shaheen. “Michael Delaney’s wide scope of supporters includes individuals in the advocacy and legal sectors, as well as judges on the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which reaffirm his respected reputation as a public servant committed to seeking justice.”

Laura Epstein, a spokesperson for Hassan, sent a similar statement. “His background has been thoroughly vetted, and throughout his career, he has shown a strong commitment to justice, including supporting civil rights and the environment,” Epstein said. “His strong, bipartisan support from a wide cross-section of leaders — from public defenders to Attorneys General from 20 states across the country to the CEO of New Hampshire’s Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) — underscores why he will make for an excellent First Circuit Judge.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer on Wednesday dramatically escalated his investigation into President Joe Biden with a subpoena Wednesday to the FBI citing the broad outlines of a “highly credible” whistleblower complaint.

The summons for documents is Comer’s (R-Ky.) most direct attempt to investigate the president after largely focusing on Hunter Biden and other family members. The Oversight chair and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), in a separate letter released on Wednesday, asserted that the FBI has material outlining “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”

The two senior Republicans provided no further detail on the nature of those allegations. But the GOP has made clear for months that the ultimate goal of its Biden oversight is to find a smoking gun that might link the president to the business deals of his son Hunter, who is also under a federal investigation.

Comer and Grassley say that they became aware of the potential existence of material underpinning the anti-Biden allegations from a “highly credible whistleblower” who contacted lawmakers to assert knowledge of a conversation the FBI had with a confidential source.

The two Republicans provided no information on the purported whistleblower’s background, or how that person would have knowledge of an alleged conversation with an FBI source. GOP lawmakers have faced Democratic criticism in the past for applying the whistleblower designation to individuals who don’t meet the legal definition.

“Based on the alleged specificity within the document, it would appear that the DOJ and the FBI have enough information to determine the truth and accuracy of the information contained within it. However, it remains unclear what steps, if any, were taken to investigate the matter,” Comer and Grassley wrote on Wednesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The subpoena compels the FBI to require over any FD-1023 forms — the formal term for records that describe conversations with a confidential human source — from June 2020 that contain the word “Biden.” The forms themselves, regardless of their content, do not independently amount to evidence of wrongdoing.

The FBI has until May 10 to hand over the documents, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by POLITICO.

DOJ confirmed they received the Republicans’ letter and declined to comment. The FBI separately acknowledged that it had received the subpoena but declined to comment further.

No evidence has emerged that Biden’s decisions were influenced by his son’s arrangements, though Hunter Biden’s business dealings have propelled GOP investigations on both sides of the Capitol since before his father’s election.

Comer wrote in a letter to Wray accompanying the subpoena that his ongoing investigation would “inform potential legislative solutions that the Committee is exploring,” including the financial disclosures required by presidents, vice presidents and their family members.

The GOP volley is all but guaranteed to spark fierce pushback and skepticism . Comer and Grassley have both spearheaded long-running Biden investigations: Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) investigated Hunter Biden in the leadup to the 2020 election, drawing charges from Democrats and even warnings from some fellow Republicans that they were at risk of spreading Russian misinformation.

Since Republicans took the House majority at the start of the year, Comer has conducted a lengthy investigation – largely behind the scenes – that’s so far focused on Hunter Biden and other Biden family members. He’s expected to hold a press conference later this month to detail his findings after the Treasury Department granted him access to so-called “suspicious activity reports,” which don’t indicate wrongdoing but are frequently used in law enforcement investigations.

TJ Ducklo is on the cusp of officially reentering Biden world in a senior communications role on his reelection campaign, according to four people familiar with the plans.

More than two years after he resigned under pressure as White House deputy press secretary following threatening and abusive remarks he made to a then-POLITICO reporter, many of his former colleagues are rallying around him. They praise him as a loyal, talented operative who’s paid for his mistake and are expressing their enthusiasm about having him back in the fold.

Others, however, are not.

“It’s hard to believe that in the post-#MeToo, anti-bullying world we live in, that the president’s team would be this tone-deaf,” said Michael LaRosa, the former press secretary for first lady Jill Biden.

“If true, it represents a stunning lack of judgment by those whom he entrusted to responsibly staff his reelection campaign. It’s not like there is a lack of Democratic talent in D.C. or across the country to choose from,” he said. “Hiring former personnel who embarrassed and humiliated him in his first three weeks in office and created an unnecessary distraction in the briefing room and for the first family feels counterintuitive to me.”

With the campaign still taking shape, official roles are highly coveted among Democratic operatives and veterans of Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. Only twofull-time hires have been announced. And one of them, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the incoming campaign manager, doesn’t even leave her White House position for another two weeks.

Against that backdrop, Ducklo’s anticipated return has sparked debate and controversy among former Biden administration and campaign staffers — some of them vying for campaign jobs themselves — about what type of behavior is forgivable in a public role. It has also led to an outpouring of support from his former colleagues, underscoring the enduring bond among the original staffers who helped launch Biden’s 2020 campaign and their deep conviction about giving Ducklo a second chance.

“From the very start, TJ earned confidence and trust at every level of the campaign — because of his abilities and because he went the extra mile for his colleagues,” said Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn, speaking with West Wing Playbook in what she stressed was her personal capacity. “TJ made a mistake, took responsibility for it, and paid a price. He continues to be a valued friend in our community and an incredibly talented professional.”

More than a dozen of Ducklo’s former colleagues from the 2020 campaign and the White House reached out Tuesday to West Wing Playbook, arguing that he has made amends for his actions and deserves another stint in Biden world. The news coverage of his behavior was humiliating, they said. After enduring treatment for stage 4 lung cancer throughout the campaign, Ducklo was forced to step down from a dream jobafter Vanity Fair reported on his verbal altercation with a then-POLITICO reporter who planned to publish a story on his relationship at the time with an Axios reporter.

In the end, Ducklo took responsibility and apologized — a move that earned him goodwill among senior Biden officials.

“TJ is strategic, whip smart and loyal through and through — any campaign would be lucky to have him,” said Kate Bedingfield, who was deputy campaign manager in 2020 and left her position earlier this year as White House communications director. “I’ve known TJ well for a long time and I can say without hesitation that he learned from his past mistake, which is all any of us can do. He has experience and grit, and he’d be an exceptional asset to the president’s reelection team.”

As former deputy communications director for strategic planning Meghan Hays put it, in a refrain echoed by multiple former colleagues: “No one deserves to be defined by their worst day.”

Ducklo declined to speak to West Wing Playbook for this report. But for a White House often reluctant to go on the record, there was no such hesitation to defend him by name. Other staffers who worked with him on the campaign and in the Biden administration, including Kamau Marshall, Carla Frank, Andrew Bates, Megan Apper, Kate Berner and Robyn Patterson, offered similar messages of support in a personal capacity, as did others who asked to speak on background.

Ducklo’s resignation came less than a month after Biden, on his first day in office,told a group of presidential appointees he’d fire anyone who treated others with disrespect. Many who worked closely with Ducklo during the 2020 campaign described him as kind and empowering, a generous mentor to junior colleagues.

But other Democratic staffers said he could be difficult to work with and combative with some reporters. They pointed out that Ducklo has found a relatively soft landing already.

After leaving the White House, he worked for Risa Heller’s communication firm before moving back to his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., to be a senior adviser to Mayor John Cooper. He has stayed close to the Biden White House and helped organize Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Nashville last month aftertwo legislators were expelled from the state House for protesting gun violence.

Among those eager to bring Ducklo back, his work in Nashville represents another reason why. He has sharpened his skills, some noted, especially when it comes to higher level strategic communications work, and helped organize a politically sensitive visit that, by all accounts, went off swimmingly.

But some former staffers from the Biden campaign and the White House said that such tactical benefits don’t change the fact that hiring Ducklo on the reelection campaign would be an unforced error — one that would inevitably distract from the president’s message during his campaign and invite otherwise avoidable scrutiny.

“I am all about forgiveness but there were also several loyal Biden campaign staffers fired by the White House for marijuana use. Do they get their White House or campaign jobs back, too?” LaRosa said. “Smoking pot is a lot less offensive than the type of workplace behavior we’re talking about here.”

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. — The longest-serving Muslim Mayor in New Jersey on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to stop the use of “discriminatory” security practices that he said target Muslim Americans after he was abruptly blocked from joining a White House celebration to mark the end of Ramadan.

Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah, a Democrat who has served as mayor of that North Jersey borough the past 17 years, said he was within minutes of entering the White House for a celebration of Eid al-Fitr on Monday when he was told he was not cleared by the Secret Service to attend the event. A specific reason was not given, he said.

Khairullah — who said he faced racial profiling in the past — said that the scenario was due to his name allegedly being on a federal government “watch list.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations New Jersey chapter provided reporters with leaked records they said proved Khairullah was on such a list, which they described as arbitrary and discriminatory.

“At this point, our crimes are our names, ethnicities, and religion,” Khairullah said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. “I call on President Biden to correct the injustices of the previous administrations by disbanding this illegal list and correcting ill-advised and racist policies.”

“I have no due process to clear my name,” he added. “This is an unintelligent dragnet.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday referred questions on the matter to the Secret Service but noted that the event at the White House was attended by “nearly 400 Muslim-Americans.”

When reached for comment by POLITICO Tuesday, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that Khairullah was denied entry to the White House event, where President Joe Biden gave remarks, but was “not able to comment further on the specific protective means and methods used to conduct our security operations at the White House.”

Khairullah said that “such inconveniences and harassment are not uncommon” for him. In 2019, Khairullah said he was held up for hours at JFK International Airport in New York and asked if he knew any terrorists and was forced to turn over his phone.

Khairullah said that he has not heard from the White House, Secret Service or any other federal officials since being disinvited from the event, but wants to use his platform to raise awareness for security practices that he said unfairly targets Muslim Americans.

“I’ve been to the White House complex prior,” he said. “I have posed no threat.”

At an unrelated event Tuesday morning, Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he spoke with Khairullah the evening before. The governor noted that Khairullaha — who he called an “outstanding American” — attended an event at the governor’s mansion in Princeton celebrating Eid this past weekend.

“We’re trying to figure out exactly what happened as we speak,” he told reporters. “As you can imagine, I spoke to Muhammad last night. He’s a very close personal friend of mine.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he was “profoundly disappointed” that the mayor was barred from entering the event.

“I believe excluding him was the wrong decision,” Booker said in a statement. “This incident is not just insulting to our ideals and to Mayor Khairullah but also to the community he serves.”

Booker, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Passaic), whose district includes Prospect Park, also sent a letter to the Secret Service on Tuesday asking why the mayor was denied entry to the White House and to review his status so it doesn’t happen again.

“Mayor Khairullah is a devoted public servant, close friend and the longest-serving Muslim mayor in New Jersey, proudly serving his community for over 17 years. As a former volunteer firefighter, Mayor Khairullah has continuously demonstrated dedication to public safety,” the lawmakers wrote.

They did not mention anything about a “watch list,” but ended the letter: “We have long appreciated the work of the Biden administration to erase xenophobic policies of the past and turn a new chapter for America.”

Selaedin Maksut, executive director of CAIR-NJ, said during the Tuesday press conference that the instance was emblematic of a larger issue of “discriminatory” profiling from the governments that targets American Muslims. Maksut also called for the White House to end the use of government “watch lists.”

“Today is an opportunity for the nation for the government to consider an opportunity to disband the watch list once and for all,” he said.