Political leaders in the Northeast are finding out what leaders in the South have known for years; dealing with an influx of migrants on a daily basis is really hard, and the U.S. needs to find a federal solution.
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Oscar Leeser, the democratic mayor of El Paso, have been bussing migrants to New York City since the beginning of August. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also flew some migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
The elected officials said the plan to bus or fly migrants elsewhere is an effort to bring attention to the crisis at the border.
After cracking down on homeless encampments, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is setting up a tent city to help handle the incoming migrants. The tent city is going to cost around $15 million a month to operate.
A potentially cheaper option that New York is working on includes housing migrants on a luxury cruise ship docked at Staten Island. Some plans even call for taking migrants back to the South to help with Hurricane Ian cleanup.
From the beginning, the plan to move migrants to so-called sanctuary destinations was criticized by many on the left. But now, with costs mounting and more migrants coming, Mayor Adams is asking, “where are you?”
“The Far Right is doing the wrong thing. The Far Left is doing nothing,” Adams said while at a news conference on Oct. 3. “I mean, I don’t believe the silence I’m hearing. These are people in need of services, and I’m not hearing from the two ends of the spectrum.”
Adams isn’t the only New York Democrat calling for bipartisan cooperation. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she’s talking to the Biden administration about presenting a federal solution.
Hochul told Bloomberg News “federal facilities and staff” should be used to help supplement the efforts in New York City.
The latest data shows since August, between 10,000-15,000 migrants have been sent to New York City from Texas.
In the current fiscal year, there have been more than 2 million migrant encounters at the southern border.
Realizing, perhaps, the need for help might be greater in the South, New Hampshire’s governor said this week he’s sending 164 members of the state’s national guard to Texas for a year to help secure the border.
