The meltdown in blue cities over the busing of illegal immigrants continues, and it’s causing Democrats serious problems.
That’s good, because it’s their fault this is happening.
What the media inaccurately call the “migrant crisis” (these are people who have unlawfully crossed the U.S. border, not migrants) is battering so-called sanctuary cities, such as New York and Los Angeles.
Imagine how people in Texas and Arizona border cities—such as El Paso, Yuma, and Eagle Pass—feel.
Texas sent a 12th bus full of illegal immigrants to Los Angeles on Monday. According to KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, the bus carried “23 men, 20 women, [and] 21 children.”
“The migrants were from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela,” it said.
Fox News reported that the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to consider the possibility of a lawsuit and “criminal probe” against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Wait a minute. Why are they suing and not celebrating? I thought all are welcome, no exceptions? Surely, they can find some houses in their city with signs declaring that they believe “no human is illegal” and all that.
Just a few months ago, this same City Council declared Los Angeles a sanctuary city and prohibited city resources from being used in immigration enforcement.
One of the City Council members, Hugo Soto-Martínez, said that there’s been a great deal of “hateful rhetoric” coming out of places like Texas.
“What this [motion] means is a clear message to the community that we’re not like them, that the city should be looked [at] as an entity that you can trust, that you can come to and that you can look to for help,” he said when Los Angeles became a sanctuary city.
Be careful what you wish for. Texas just gave them what they said they wanted.
Monday’s busload might just be the beginning for Los Angeles. So far, Abbott has sent just 480 illegal immigrants there. But given that there have been millions who have come to America since this crisis began at the start of President Joe Biden’s administration, there’s likely more to come.
The left-wing radicals on the Los Angeles City Council, who insist on giving no aid for border enforcement, will almost undoubtedly be begging the federal government for aid now that they are seriously dealing with the consequences.
I can’t stress enough that the busing isn’t a victory. The problem remains: Our southern border is effectively open, millions of people are violating our laws, evil drug cartels are empowered, and America more and more becomes an economic zone rather than a self-governing country.
But putting the border chaos ball more firmly in the Democratic Party’s court remains one of the bigger successes for the GOP in recent years.
Typically, Democrats can marshal their considerable media, cultural, and institutional power to deflect blame away from their failures.
When one of their policies has immediate and predictable catastrophic results—such as defunding the police—they first attach the predictable chaos to one of their favorite narratives: “Systemic racism, inequality!”
When all else fails, they attribute the obviously terrible idea to Republicans and conservatives: “Republicans are defunding the police!”
The busing solution has made this strategy nearly impossible, as residents are seeing firsthand the consequences of left-wing virtue signaling.
Chicago has been housing the illegal immigrants at O’Hare International Airport, in facilities totally unequipped to deal with the influx of people.
New York has considered constructing tent cities in Central Park as expensive hotels fill to the brim, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a month.
Protests are now erupting over the chaos.
“I realize it’s a sanctuary city, but there has to be a limit to our compassion,” said Michele Rubin on Tuesday, who was protesting on Staten Island, WNYW-TV Channel 5 in New York reported. “We don’t have the infrastructure. We are not vetting anybody. We don’t know if anybody has a criminal background or what they did in their country of origin.”
Of the more than 100,000 illegal immigrants who have arrived in the city since the crisis exploded a few years ago, 59,000 are being housed on Staten Island.
Residents are starting to get testy, and so are politicians, who are looking for someone to blame.
“Tensions between the Biden administration and local Democrats are coming to a head as shelters around the country overflow and thousands of immigrants arrive in major cities,” Axios reported, noting that the Biden administration has offered few answers.
Hey, the border is “secure,” according to the administration, right?
Many Democrats have concluded that the issue is that work permits haven’t been distributed fast enough, which is both amusing and infuriating. It’s amusing to think that handing out more work permits will make the crisis go away, rather than exacerbate it. It’s infuriating because they are basically saying that the law should specifically cater to people who have intentionally broken the law.
As Nicole Gelinas wrote for the New York Post, the work permits “solution” will make the problem worse beyond just the increased incentive to break the law.
“Another problem with issuing work permits to new migrants is: What about the old migrants? If you’ve been toiling for years as a dishwasher or housekeeper, shouldn’t you get a work permit, too?” Gelinas asked, rhetorically. “Claims of asylum notwithstanding, most people who came here 10 or 20 years ago came for the same reason people came a month ago: job opportunities.”
It’s easy to see why there’s been increased local unrest. And deservedly so.
The answer to the problem is straightforward. It’s on the Biden administration to get control of the border, prioritize enforcement over appeasement, and stop signaling to the world that America’s borders are merely a suggestion.
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