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To hear New York mayor Eric Adams tell it, you would think that a crisis has gripped the streets of our nation’s largest city as busloads of illegal immigrants arrive from Texas. Some of the new arrivals, courtesy of Texas Governor Greg Abbott — who wants to send a message about the very real crisis in his state — have been met in person by the mayor. He claims the city is now scrambling to take care of them. It’s a lie.
Thus far, Abbott has sent 75, maybe 100 illegal immigrants to New York, a city of 9 million people, a city which, in fact, already has a population of 500,000 illegal migrants. Are we really to believe that a few dozen more from Texas has our system at the breaking point? That’s about as many as come with the average church tourist group from Nebraska; it’s not exactly Exodus or the Mariel Boatlift. To put it in perspective, the maximum capacity of a single New York subway car is 198.
But listen to this ridiculous hyperbole from Adams: “This is horrific when you think about what the governor is doing.” He added, “We need help, and we’re reaching out to the federal government to tell them that we need help. We’re going to get through this.” Get through this? Get through what, exactly? More illegal immigrants pass through our airports every day. What help do we need from the federal government? Do we need them to rent us a church basement and buy some cots? What’s going on here?
Adams is weaving this farcical fable to his own detriment and to the enormous benefit of Republicans. This lie makes no political sense. It undermines not only New York’s commitment as a sanctuary city, but also the Democrats’ claims that there is no crisis at the border. The smart play here would have been to absorb the migrants, as Gotham does every day, and stay quiet. Instead, Adams has taken the bait and thereby allowed Abbott and other Republicans to say, “We see, in New York City it’s a crisis, but in Texas its just fine.” Absolute political malpractice.
There are also a few busloads of hypocrisy at work here. For months, the Biden administration has been flying illegal immigrants into Westchester, New York, in the middle of the night, far more than Abbott has sent into the spotlight. Have Democrats in the Empire State demanded that the administration desist in this practice? Of course not. Yet Abbott, they say, is using migrants as “political pawns” by moving them out of Texas. When Democrats do it, it’s humane and caring; when Republicans do it, it’s evil and cynical.
In the end, Adams and his ilk could not resist the opportunity to paint the GOP as a bunch of heartless extremists. But this time they have pounced right onto a banana peel. Democrats in New York and in the White House, where Abbott’s actions have also received grave disapprobation, are dancing to Abbott’s tune. If illegal immigration is a crisis in New York, it’s absolutely one in Texas. Meanwhile, the city’s leadership looks incompetent and flatfooted in responding to a small softball tournament’s worth of migrants.
Mayor Adams may not be aware — he keeps up a pretty healthy nightlife, after all — but we already have a lot of American homeless people here in New York City. Adams seems to have very little interest in the thousands of native New Yorkers languishing on our streets and sleeping in our subways. But a handful of illegal immigrants arrive and suddenly it’s all hands on deck?
Adams needs to stop playing these ridiculous political games and fix his broken city. President Biden needs to acknowledge the crisis at our border in states like Texas and Arizona. New Yorkers aren’t stupid. We know cheap political tricks when we see them and this one wouldn’t fetch a nickel. There is no illegal immigrant crisis in New York City. We don’t need federal aid. What we need is a Democrat Party willing to look illegal immigration and drug trafficking over our southern border in the eye and do something about it. Sadly, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath.
