While the Biden administration still refuses to acknowledge the migrant crisis, it’s impossible for them to hide the impact their disastrous border crisis is having on Democrat-run sanctuary cities and states.
Customs and Border Protection sources confirmed to Fox News that the total migrant encounters for fiscal year to date 2023, at 2,388,350, have surpassed the 2022 total of 2,378,944, setting a new record. With fiscal years running from October to October, this puts migrant crossings at over 9,000 a day on average, according to Griff Jenkins, who is embedded at the border.
Many of these migrants made New York their end destination, upending the quality of life in a city already struggling with untenable crime, drug use and homelessness. Mayor Eric Adams warned that this crisis will "destroy New York City," with Gov. Kathleen Hochul warning migrants not to come to her state.
While I sympathize with New Yorkers – or Chicagoans, Denverites and others – who have to live with the crisis, voters hold some of the blame. They embrace radical left politicians who proudly signaled their support for asylum seekers. They just never thought anyone would take them up on their sanctuary offers.
BIDEN-ERA MIGRANT CRISIS BLOWING HOLES THROUGH BUDGETS OF LIBERAL, SANCTUARY CITIES
During the Trump presidency, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Democrat proudly declaring their city, county or state a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, a safe haven for immigrants seeking a better life – an escape from poverty or conflict in their home countries. Some jurisdictions established laws or policies for the first time during the Trump administration, while others strengthened pre-existing ones.
But they virtually all had the same effect: An influx of illegal immigrants took these sanctuaries up on their offers for shelter and freedom, putting a strain on local resources. Accepting so many unvetted illegal immigrants led to an increase in preventable crime and negatively impacted the quality of life for residents.
Denver codified its sanctuary status on Aug. 28, 2018, after community activists demanded protections against Trump’s immigration policies. The Public Safety Enforcement Priorities Act prevented city employees from sharing information about a resident’s immigration status, prohibited the sharing of information for the purposes of immigration matters, and forbade law enforcement from detaining an illegal immigrant for the sole purposes of turning them over to federal immigration officials.
"Last year we watched as our new president called us rapists, drug dealers and criminals. Our children cried in fear as our new president threatened to separate their families and build a wall of deportation," Councilman Paul López, one of the sponsors of the bill, explained while holding back tears in a nearly 15‑minute self-aggrandizing speech ahead of the bill’s passage.
Lopez and the others extolled what they treated as the most historic civil rights bill in the city’s history. It was a nauseatingly rehearsed performance of left-wing theatrics, filled with calculated pauses that feigned thoughtfulness. It was nothing more than performative politics.
"Look, there’s never anything false about hope, right? Our movement needs these allies. We need allies to stand in this gap, and we usually refer to civil rights and human rights as something in history books. But it’s not in history books. Ladies and gentlemen, it is today, in these chambers, in this city, at this moment that we were born to be here for. And we all have this responsibility to stand up to injustice, and if we all stand together... we cannot be moved."
Denver’s welcoming attitude toward illegal immigrants ended with the Trump presidency. While proudly proclaiming to be a sanctuary for immigrants while Trump was in office, the mood changed with President Biden’s porous southern border. The city saw a dramatic increase in illegal immigrants in December 2022, and local leaders were unprepared.
A steady stream of illegal immigrants was bused to Denver, and the city coped. But then came a much larger group of Venezuelans between the ages of 20 and 40. City leaders didn’t know who sent the group, but they were forced to scramble to provide emergency shelter. Despite initial statements from Democrat Mayor Michael Hancock that their No. 1 priority was the "health and safety of all our residents, including those who are migrants," their priorities quickly changed.
MIGRANTS OVERWHELM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN SIDEWALKS: ‘ABSOLUTELY OUT OF CONTROL’
Less than a month after the surprise visit of Venezuelans, Democrat Gov. Jared Polis announced he was shipping the migrants elsewhere. In partnership with Denver, Polis’ office arranged for "culturally competent navigators" (whatever that is) to help ship the migrants "in the most humane possible way" to their final destination. Polis promised this would be done "in coordination with the receiving community."
Polis strained to portray his plan as compassionate, but his actions were almost identical to those coming from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, both Republican. Still, Polis got a pass from left-wing national media.
Instead, Republican governors earned national headlines rebuking their so-called callous and uncompassionate stunts using vulnerable migrants as political pawns. Unwilling to continue to shoulder the burden of the costs and crimes associated with illegal border crossings, they bused and flew migrants to Democrat-run sanctuary cities, just like Polis. New York Mayor Adams called this "unfair."
What’s unfair for local governments is to bear the burden of an open border and lax immigration policy. It is supposed to be the responsibility of the federal government. But is it unfair for local governments to take on the obligation when they touted their sanctuaries as beacons for immigrants? What was the point of designating itself a sanctuary city, county or state, if they were unwilling to help bear the burden of migrants illegally crossing the border?
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The radical left didn’t think through their plans because their sanctuary declarations were acts of virtue signaling. Their real plan was to burden Republican-led border states, while Democrats earned future voters in areas they haven’t yet been able to win. Their strategy came back to haunt them, and their residents paid a price.
Mayor Adams spent the tail end of 2022 complaining about the influx of migrants straining the city’s resources. At one point in August, the city’s shelters housed 4,900 migrants seeking asylum. At first, Adams turned the busloads of migrants shipped to his city into a publicity campaign to celebrate the city’s compassion, personally greeting them and offering food. When the cameras were not recording, Adams’ office volunteers were "screaming at the refugees to smile at the mayor," according to Ariadna Phillips, the founder of South Bronx Mutual Aid.
New York became a sanctuary city well before Trump was in office. The proclamation was passed in 1989 under Mayor Ed Koch. Under Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city went even further with a bill that limited most cooperation with federal officials by "end[ing] cooperation with federal ‘detainer requests’ for all residents, except those who have been convicted of violent or serious felonies."
Some migrants were receiving hotel rooms and free food. Others were housed in complexes with big screen televisions, Xbox consoles and cushy sofas.
Immigrants would see this as more of an incentive to make the dangerous journey into the United States. And that’s exactly what they did. The surge continued, as the Biden administration did next to nothing to stem the tide of migrants. And look where that’s got us.
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Portions of this op-ed were excerpted from "What’s Killing America" by Jason Rantz. (Copyright 2023) Used with permission from Center Street, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
