OPINION:
Embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams came out this week in favor of cooperation with the incoming Trump administration to capture and remove criminal aliens from the streets of America’s largest city. The criminal immigrants allowed into the country illegally by the Biden administration with the support of Democrats nationwide have become a significant problem in the Big Apple.
New York is home to more than 750,000 illegal immigrants, an estimated 60,000 of whom have previously been convicted of a crime or have criminal charges pending, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Unlike the mayors of Boston and Denver, Mr. Adams, a former captain in the New York Police Department, has now said he won’t use the city’s sanctuary policies to prevent ICE from exercising the deportation program promised in the new Trump administration.
Mr. Adams’ motivations are certainly questionable. The mayor has been indicted on corruption charges and has asserted that the prosecutions are political retribution for his failure to fully support President Biden’s border policy. At this year’s Al Smith Dinner, President-elect Donald Trump poked fun at Mr. Adams while also suggesting that the Democratic mayor is getting a raw deal.
Is Mr. Adams angling for a pardon from the president-elect by getting on board with some of his immigration agenda? Possibly. But whatever his motivations, New York is on a path to dealing with its crisis of criminal aliens in cooperation with the federal government.
That should be music to the ears of New York taxpayers, business owners and anyone who relies on the city’s massive tourism industry to survive. The city is more than $104 billion in public debt driven by public union legacy costs and social services exacerbated by harboring three-quarters of a million illegals.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is taking a decidedly different approach. He has doubled down on sanctuary status and rebuffing any attempts by the federal government to deport illegals from the Windy City. Mr. Johnson is a proud leftist who is facing a 2025 budget deficit of nearly $1 billion as well as massive debt.
He has vowed to fight the Trump administration in court to prevent the federal government from deporting illegals.
Mr. Johnson’s solution was proposing to raise taxes by some $300 million. Fortunately, the City Council voted it down. Now Mr. Johnson expects the state and federal government to provide what he calls “progressive revenue” to close the budget gap.
In a recent public hearing on the budget, Black residents who are dealing with the illegal migrant crisis in their own neighborhoods were enraged over Mr. Johnson’s spending on illegals when they are struggling with the higher cost of living in a city where more than 2,500 people were shot last year.
The mayor has apparently spent more than $400 million dealing with an influx of over 42,000 illegals. One resident at the hearing pleaded for Mr. Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, to come there first. Mr. Johnson cut off her microphone.
If Mr. Johnson holds firm and Mr. Adams truly cooperates with the Trump administration, whatever his motivations, it will create a contrast of outcomes that could have larger political ramifications for America’s failing cities. To borrow a phrase from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, this standoff will create the best of times for some and the worst of times for those still unwilling to throw off the shackles of leftism.
This social experiment of unrestricted open borders has been a human calamity on many levels. With Mr. Trump’s team itching for a fight with progressive mayors, the battle royal ahead will only further demonstrate the failure of progressive Democrats’ willingness to harm Americans for the sake of turning illegals into new voters and an expanded permanent welfare class.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax TV and is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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