New York City‘s struggle to care for about 110,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since last year is having political repercussions for President Joe Biden, more than 200 miles away in Washington, D.C.
But the political ramifications for Biden are not only emanating from New York City, but also other Democratic-run cities, including Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, before next year’s election.
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What is unfolding in New York City regarding migrants is “a prime example of what happens when you combine bad local policies with poor enforcement of federal immigration laws,” according to Republican strategist Lanhee Chen.
“NYC’s policies have created a permissive environment where, unsurprisingly, migrants have fled to seek shelter,” Chen, policy director of Sen. Mitt Romney‘s (R-UT) 2012 presidential campaign, told the Washington Examiner. “Even blue-state governors like Maura Healey in Massachusetts have decried the ‘crisis of inaction’ within the Biden administration when it comes to enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
“The confluence of bad policy and inaction has made for an incredibly toxic — and sad — mix that threatens NYC and other similarly situated cities across America,” he said.
While the White House cites legal constraints concerning its response, Republican governors, from Govs. Greg Abbott (R-TX) to Ron DeSantis (R-FL), sending migrants to the likes of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, has exacerbated a situation in which more people then travel to where their family and friends have been bused or flown.
“I wrote to him in May, so it’s been like four months. But I hope to find out,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the second-highest ranking Senate Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Axios last week of Biden.
The federal government should “shoulder the expense borne by states and localities when dealing with immigration matters,” according to former Democratic consultant Christopher Hahn. Biden should additionally take “immediate” action to permit migrants to legally work, the one-time aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Aggressive Progressive podcast host said.
“For over a generation, Congress has failed to enact comprehensive immigration reform, like the 2013 Border Security and Immigration Modernization Act that passed the Senate by a wide bipartisan margin,” he added. “Then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) failed to bring it to the House floor for a vote. It should be revisited by the current Congress.”
The White House has defended Biden’s immigration policies, not only as they are being implemented in New York, but along the southern border as well. With respect to New York, the president has spoken with state and city officials to coordinate efforts and “identify possible efficiencies in their operations,” supplementing more than $140 million in Department of Homeland Security federal funding this fiscal year, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. Biden’s average immigration job approval is a net negative 28 percentage points, 33% approval to 61% approval, a RealClearPolitics polling aggregation finds. Adams is calling on Biden to declare an immigration emergency, with estimates migrants could cost New York City almost $12 billion over three years.
“Following conversations with leaders in New York, across the country, the administration launched a first-of-its-kind national campaign for individuals who are work-eligible but have not yet applied to work authorization with information on how to apply to employment authorization,” Jean-Pierre said last week on Air Force One. “Hundreds of thousands of SMSs and emails have been sent in English, in Spanish, in Haitian Creole, and many other languages to make that happen.”
The White House, too, has underscored Biden’s expanded migrant parole program, which encourages people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to cross the border legally. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged he, in conjunction with State Department counterparts, could recertify temporary protected status for Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
“We need Congress to act, No. 1,” he told CNN Monday. “No. 2, within that broken immigration system, we are challenged by an unprecedented level of displacement in the Western hemisphere of historic proportions. We have responded with a model approach that has proven to work, which is to build lawful pathways for individuals to arrive in a safe and orderly way and to deliver consequences for those who don’t meet them.”
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Last weekend, Adams, who has simultaneously escalated tensions with Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) over New York’s right to shelter laws and claims other parts of the state have received more help than the city, repeated his prediction that the number of migrants “will destroy” New York City if the federal government does not “step up.” Adams specifically stood up for himself amid criticism from more liberal Democrats, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who have condemned the mayor for “alienating people” and contend “blaming immigrants for the crisis is not leadership.”
“I know what it takes to govern the city, and I need them to do their job in Washington, D.C.,” Adams told MSNBC last Sunday. “Like other cities, it is time for my national leaders to step up. I’m hoping that the congresswoman will come in, and walk through, and see the conditions, and how we cannot properly take care of those who are in these [humanitarian relief centers]. If we don’t get the resources we need, it will potentially destroy the city if we don’t get it right.”
