OPINION:
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd had such a moment on Sunday, when he stunningly admitted that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was right when the governor said busing illegal immigrants from the Lone Star State to Democratic-run sanctuary cities would turn Democrats against President Biden’s open-borders policy.
“Coming up, New York City’s growing humanitarian crisis,” Mr. Todd said, teasing the next segment. “The shelter system, slammed by an influx of migrants. New calls for federal help. I guess Greg Abbott was right. He said once he got blue cities to deal with this, that they would be very upset by the federal government.”
Indeed, New York Mayor Eric Adams is furious. He said last week that the influx of illegal aliens threatens to “decimate” his city, which promises that illegals will have housing, jobs and haven from deportation.
Mr. Adams estimates that nearly 100,000 asylum-seekers arrived in the Big Apple in the last year alone, at a cost to the city of over $12 billion by 2025. Now, the mayor is begging for federal help.
In what was viewed as a political ploy when Republicans did it, Mr. Adams has been busing migrants upstate. Over the weekend, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a Democrat, said in a news conference that he “demanded Mayor Adams pause all further transportation of asylum seekers to our community until such time as we can resolve all security issues,” according to Spectrum News.
Two migrants shipped upstate have been charged with sexual assault. One asylum-seeker from Venezuela was accused of raping a woman in front of a 3-year-old child, and another from the Democratic Republic of Congo was charged with sexual abuse, according to Spectrum. Statewide, about 1,800 National Guard members have been deployed to deal with migrant-related troubles.
Other Democratic enclaves have felt the impact of our wide-open southern border. Chicago declared an emergency over the influx of migrants, many of whom sleep homeless in O’Hare International Airport and line the streets of the Magnificent Mile. The city has also asked the federal government for aid.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey joined in last week with an emergency declaration of her own
“Massachusetts has stepped up to address what sadly has been a federal crisis of inaction that is many years in the making,” she said in a letter to the federal government, citing nearly 20,000 illegal immigrants who were seeking shelter in her state.
As Arizona has seen a surge in migrant crossings this summer, Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, criticized Mr. Biden’s “dumb” border policies. His concerns echo those of the Grand Canyon State’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallegos.
In the Tucson region, the Border Patrol has been encountering up to 1,900 migrants a day, more than double the number of migrants crossing in June.
Texas has dealt with the crisis by continuing to ship migrants crossing the southern border to sanctuary cities including Los Angeles, Washington, New York, Chicago, Denver and Philadelphia. More than 21,600 migrants have been taken out of overwhelmed border communities.
“Texas’s small border towns remain overwhelmed and overrun by the thousands of people illegally crossing into Texas from Mexico because of President Biden’s refusal to secure the border,” Mr. Abbott said in a June press release, vowing to continue the busing practice.
Mr. Abbott’s “political stunt” has turned Democrats’ attention to the crisis at the border. If Mr. Biden doesn’t hear Republican calls to secure the border, perhaps complaints from his allies will persuade him to change course.
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