For those of you who don’t follow Chicago news, last week Mayor Lightfoot made a distressed plea to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to stop sending migrants from Colorado to Chicago. How does that differ from previous dispatches of migrants to “sanctuary cities”? Jared Polis is a Democrat. In a piece at the Washington Post Jim Geraghty takes note:
For what it’s worth, before his capitulation on Saturday, Polis insisted that what he was doing was completely different from what Republicans were doing. He said Colorado’s state government wasn’t forcing anyone to leave and extended invitations to everyone to stay, and that “the state is working with culturally competent navigators to ensure that each individual is voluntarily making their decision.â€
Polis emphasized that about 70 percent of the migrants arriving in Denver didn’t see Colorado as their final destination, and the aim was to match them with family members, friends and services when they reached Chicago and New York.
But the Democratic mayors of those cities didn’t see a difference. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot denounced Polis’s move, declaring in a statement to Politico, “It is simply inhumane for any governor, whether Republican or Democrat, to address this challenge by giving these poor, traumatized migrants a one-way ticket out of town and washing their hands of the matter at our literal and figurative expense. For shame.â€
New York Mayor Eric Adams concurred. “Her remarks, do I agree with them? You’re damn right. You’re damn right I do. For the governor of Colorado to say that I’m going to push the problem to the city and didn’t even notify us. Everyone knows what we’re going through.†He added, “At one time we had to deal with Republican governors sending migrants to New York. Now we’re dealing with Democratic governors sending migrants to New York.â€
Not anymore. After a “very productive conversation†with both mayors — meaning he got an earful — Polis said he’d stop the busing program.
This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a problem for Congress (see my previous post).
Whether they’re economic migrants or asylum-seekers, the reality is that their very large number is causing a drain on resources in many places. It is well within Congress’s authority to deal with the situation.
One solution would be for Congress to appropriate a stipend for each migrant which would go to the jurisdictions hosting them. I suspect that would change the nature of the discussion considerably. Where the money would come from is important but it’s a different question. Congress has been reluctant to raise taxes to pay for what they want to spend; borrowing more money is at cross-purposes with the Fed’s attempt to curb inflation.
Another solution would be to appropriate enough money to enforce our laws at the border distinguishing between genuine asylum seekers and economic migrants right then and there. I suspect it would take more than money—you might need to draft judges and/or lawyers to do the preliminary adjudication on an emergency basis.
What is blithely referred to as “comprehensive immigration reform” is presently at an impasse and looks like to remain so. What Democrats find acceptable Republicans reject out of hand as amnesty. What Republicans find acceptable Democrats reject as heartless and racist. At this point calling for comprehensive immigration reform is sophistry. Congress needs to choose another alternative.
I think the correct alternative is to enforce the law. If you don’t like the law, change it don’t ignore it.
Here’s a local article that I think is pretty good:
https://coloradosun.com/2023/01/05/busing-migrants-polis/
“I think the correct alternative is to enforce the law. If you don’t like the law, change it don’t ignore it.”
In my view, that would mean adjudicating asylum cases much quicker, which would mean increasing the legal system’s capacity to do that. This seems to be one area where Republicans and Democrats agree – neither wants to do that, albeit for different reasons.
As I argued over at OTB, in my view, the federal government should federalize the various bussing programs to get these asylum seekers where they need and want to be. But the Biden administration doesn’t want to appear to “cave” to Republican governors, and for all the rhetoric about supposed love and support for immigrants on the left, NIMBY still rules, even in progressive-leaning cities.
Lightfoot’s reaction pretty much says it all. The present migrants aren’t needed or wanted anywhere. At least they’re not wanted where they want to go.
Andy, there’s a hat tip to Gov. Polis’s explanation in the WaPo opinion piece I cited. IMO it’s a distinction without a difference. Shorter: his bussing is different because his motives are so pure.
As a rough rule of thumb the cost to local governments of the surge of migrants is around $50,000 per year per migrant. At the present rate of migration that’s about $50 billion per year. That’s freight the federal government should be bearing.
LightFoot should be happy, at least SOMEBODY wants to live in Chicago.
Garrisoning them in Denver against their will is inhumane and asking them to pay their own way is just not who we are.
I don’t see the numbers of illegal immigrants going down anytime soon.
The push factor is stronger then ever. If the US economy looks poor to us here, by comparison it is much stronger then practically the rest of the world currently.
“Andy, there’s a hat tip to Gov. Polis’s explanation in the WaPo opinion piece I cited. IMO it’s a distinction without a difference. Shorter: his bussing is different because his motives are so pure.”
That is the case with most of the bussing done by Republican governors. Only in a few rare cases (the Martha’s Vineyard stunt) have immigrants been lied to about where they are going. In Texas, at least, immigrant welfare agencies are directing migrants to the Texas bussing program if it’s a good fit for them, depending on where they want to go.
These are people who would end up in Chicago or NYC anyway. The expectation from those mayors that Colorado has some obligation to prevent them from leaving Colorado, or forcing them to find and pay for their own way, tells one a lot about motivations.
The fact is that these people will get to where they want to go one way or another. If the government is going to spend money to make that smoother and safer (something I think is a good idea), then it ought to be the federal government since immigration is in their purview. And if the federal government is going to allow them into the country for years until their court dates, then the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that border communities aren’t burdened with tens of thousands living on the streets. Currently, federal immigration authorities are literally dumping people on the streets of El Paso and other border cities and pointing them to the local bus stop or immigrant charity.