In the most recent battle of wills between border states and inland blue states, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sworn to continue sending busloads of migrants to NYC; and NYC Mayor Eric Adams hints at a possible racial motive for these gestures.
“Not only is this behavior morally bankrupt and devoid of any concern for the well-being of asylum seekers, but it is also impossible to ignore the fact that Abbott is now targeting five cities run by Black mayors.”
This tactic of transporting migrants to blue states has been a dramatic tit-for-tat maneuver by border states to nudge Democratic lawmakers to stop encouraging laxity at the southern border. The first thrust of this heated political show of force came last year when Governor Abbott transported two buses full of migrants to the front door of Vice President Kamala Harris’ personal residence.
Shortly following in his footsteps, Florida Governor Ron Desantis flew two planes worth of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Since then, buses have continued to arrive in sanctuary cities such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. More than 57,000 asylum seekers have landed in NYC since last spring, stretching an already scant social safety net to the breaking point. City Hall projects that provide for the basic needs of this influx of migrants will most likely cost the city $2.9 billion dollars over the next two years.
In a statement from a spokesperson for Governor Abbott, the governor voiced his own frustrations: “With millions of residents, New York is only dealing with a fraction of what our small border communities deal with on a day-to-day basis. The real crisis isn’t in New York City—it’s on our southern border, where President Biden’s open border policies have allowed record-high levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and weapons to surge into our state and country.”
As the Trump era “Title 42” policy nears an end, lawmakers are under the gun to find a suitable border policy before the migrant crisis gets any worse.
