Gov. Kathy Hochul trekked down to the White House on Wednesday, but not to meet with President Biden about New York’s worsening migrant crisis.

Instead, the Empire State leader was shunted to the president’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, for a closed-door meeting at 4:30 p.m. — nearly three hours after Biden’s last scheduled event.

The two were expected to discuss the flood of asylum seekers with work authorization for the migrants being a key focus, but wouldn’t go into any further detail, a White House spokesperson confirmed. 

Five and half hours later, the White House finally released a readout of the meeting – which confirmed Hochul and Biden administration officials discussed a plan to help eligible migrants living in New York apply for work permits, but offered few details on how they would execute the initiative.

Starting in September, the federal government will launch a “national campaign” geared towards migrants who have been cleared to work, but have not yet filed the proper paperwork to do so, according to the readout sent out at 10 p.m.

Government officials plan to email and text the work-eligible asylum-seekers “with information on how to apply for employment authorization,” the White House said.

About 20% of migrants currently living in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are federally authorized to work, but have not filed for a permit, according to the Biden administration.

A minute after the White House released its readout, Hochul released her own statement about Wednesday’s meeting.

“Earlier today I met, for more than two hours, with senior members of the Biden Administration in the West Wing of the White House for a frank and productive conversation about how the federal government can, and must, provide additional support to the people of New York as we work to address the ongoing influx of asylum seekers and migrants,” Hochul said in a statement.

“We focused on a number of immediate and tangible actions, including several that would allow more individuals to work legally in the United States, as well as long-term actions to end this crisis.” 

Hochul said her top priority remains to be “securing expedited work authorization for asylum seekers and migrants.”

New York lawmakers hoped Hochul urged the administration to ignore politics and act. 

“Governor Hochul should tell President Biden that just because we are in an election cycle, it is no excuse for inaction on the migrant crisis,” said state Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Queens). 

“No one from either party wants our leaders to sit on the sidelines and do nothing just because it is an election year. No one votes for that person.”

Fellow New York Democrat, state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton called the response “a failure at every level.”

“It’s crucial that the federal government hear the pleas of all concerned citizens across our state and step up to stop this crisis,” the Staten Island lawmaker continued.

The DC trip comes a week after Hochul began the blame game over the migrant crisis in New York, saying in an address that the White House should take ownership of the influx of asylum seekers.

“The reality is we’ve managed thus far without substantive support from Washington,” the governor said in an address from Albany last week.

The pleas for help from the feds were met with more finger-pointing days later, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas blaming both the city and state for the handling of the large-scale humanitarian crisis caused by national policy.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly slammed the federal government for falling short in its response to help the city handle the influx of more than 100,000 migrants since the spring of 2022, with an eye-watering projected cost of $12 billion by 2025.

The rhetoric between NYC and Albany has also intensified in recent weeks as both sides tried to cast blame — a blow to a united Democratic front.

Hizzoner ramped up his criticism of Hochul’s handling of the local migrant influx on Tuesday, saying she is blatantly “wrong” for not forcing other areas of the state to take asylum seekers, leaving the Big Apple to handle the crisis on its own.

“She’s the governor of the state of New York. New York City is in that state. Every county in this state should be part of this,” he insisted.