The surprising news is that the governor wants to deport illegal immigrants who attack cops.

No, it is not Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey we are talking about, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Hochul made the deportation comment in the wake of the gang of young illegal immigrants who attacked two New York police officers in Times Square, kicking and beating them on the ground.

The video of the incident went around the world.

Hochul, a sanctuary supporter, suddenly wanted to deport them. “Get them all and send them back,” Hochul said.  “You don’t touch our police officers. You don’t touch anybody.”

That video was shortly followed by another, in which one of the gangbangers gave the finger to America after he and his three colleagues were set free without bail by the court.

The gesture was his salute to the U.S for allowing him into the country.

Coming under fire for his leniency, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he would come down hard on the other illegal immigrants involved in the beating, but nobody really believes him.

The truth is that if the four thugs were U.S. citizens instead of foreigners, they would be sitting in a cell waiting for someone to post bail.

Their senseless and soft court treatment by Bragg was even better than that given to a wanted criminal illegal immigrant set free by Newton District Court Judge Shelly Joseph in 2018.

She allowed that illegal immigrant to sneak out the back door of Newton court to avoid ICE agents waiting out front to pick him up and deport him.

Joseph was indicted for obstruction of justice and suspended with pay over the incident, but the charges were later dropped, and she is back on the bench.

These four New York alleged cop-beaters walked out the front door of the New York courthouse.

And the next thing you knew the four, using aliases, conned a Catholic charity into giving them free bus tickets for a scenic ride across America to Arizona and California where they will be eligible for more free stuff.

Gov. Healey is going to have to go some to top that.

One way would be for Healey to appoint Joseph to the Superior Court or even the Supreme Judicial Court upon the next vacancy.

That surely would bolster her support among progressives and migrant visitors crossing the border illegally under Joe Biden’s open borders policy, which she also supports.

But she had better do it soon because the tide may be turning as more Americans are being pushed aside — like the Roxbury residents of the Melnea Cass recreational center — to make room for the migrants  Biden has let into the country.

An irony in the case of the immigrants at Cass and elsewhere is that the Americans being displaced are the same people who are working and paying taxes to pay for all the free stuff that is handed to illegal immigrants.

It won’t be long before Healey will have to cut services for taxpayers and raise taxes to pay for the growing problem. Illegal immigrants will keep on coming because they know that Massachusetts is most generous when it comes to providing free stuff.

You could make a case that under the Healey administration illegal immigrants get preferential treatment over average but needy Massachusetts citizens. While state services for senior citizens are being cut, services for illegal immigrants are being increased.

There is no end to the progressive Democrat need to court favor with illegal immigrants.

Last week 59 of the 209 Democrats voting in the U.S. House voted for a bill that would deport illegal immigrants convicted of drunk driving, a growing problem.

Seven of the state’s nine members of the U.S. House, all Democrats, voted against the bill. The other two, Reps Steven Lynch of South Boston and William Keating of Bourne, voted for it.

The seven who voted against the bill were Reps. Katherine Clarke of Revere, Ayanna Pressley of Boston, Richard Neal of Springfield, James McGovern of Worcester, Lori Trahan of Westford, Seth Moulton of Salem, and Jake Auchincloss of Newton.

By their votes you shall know them.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.

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