As a certain infamous pastor in Chicago once bellowed, the city's chickens 'are coming home to roost.' The Windy City has long been a Democrat-dominated place, proudly declaring itself a 'sanctuary' for illegal immigrants against supposedly cruel federal enforcement mechanisms. After lurching into deeper dysfunction under a failed mayor in Lori Lightfoot, Chicagoans saw fit to elect an even more left-wing, pro-criminal individual to helm their city's leadership. The tenure of Brandon Johnson has gone, well, predictably. A career teachers union agitator, he's announced that he's breaking a campaign pledge and seeking to further destroy public schools by eliminating gifted programs, which his ideological tribe has deemed an affront to 'equity.' Johnson has made public excuses for lawbreakers.
He's chided New York City's Democrats for insensitivity on the illegal immigration crisis, vowing that Chicago will not be overwhelmed by the challenge. Since then, he's gone to political war with members of his own city council who want to repeal Chicago's sanctuary status, given widespread anger among residents over the influx of migrants. Voters have gotten what they asked for, nice and hard, and Johnson's approval rating has slid into the 20's. And how's his self-righteous preening on immigration going? Not very well:
The mayors of three of the biggest cities in the country say their areas are almost at capacity with migrants. https://t.co/BmOyAoT6C5
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 28, 2023
The mayors of three of the biggest cities in the country – including Chicago – met Wednesday to discuss the migrant crisis each is facing. As CBS 2's Marybel González reported, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday said Chicago is almost at capacity with migrants, even as more asylum seekers were making their way to the suburbs and other towns and villages in the area. New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston both said they will take a page from Chicago's book, as the leaders of those cities likewise said they are at a tipping point. Not only are they running out of housing and resources, but they are still dealing with unannounced buses arriving every single day – and more expected to come. "All of our cities have reached a point where we are either close to capacity, or nearly out of room," said Mayor Johnson.
Recommended
Here's the thing: 'Sanctuary' cities don't get to just declare themselves full. They don't get to decree that no more migrants may enter their borders. Do they think border communities and towns have more space and resources for the crush of humanity that floods into their streets on an hourly basis? If restrictions don't apply to the nation's borders, thanks to the pro-illegal-immigration policies they support, they certainly don't apply to their municipal borders. It's not acceptable for these jurisdictions to undermine enforcement and encourage illegal immigration, then demand exemptions from the consequences when a fraction of the mess is delivered to their doorsteps. Texas should ignore Eric Adams:
JUST IN - New York City Mayor Adams issues an "emergency executive order" to restrict bus arrivals amid migrant surge — The Hill
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) December 28, 2023
Gosh, why hasn't, say, El Paso just announced they're full? Texas should also ignore this desperate blame-storming by Brandon Johnson, and send far more planes and buses to Chicago:
Upon landing, asylum seekers were placed on buses chartered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and dropped in various surrounding suburbs, left to find their way to the city.
— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) December 31, 2023
This is the second recorded instance of the Texas governor transporting asylum seekers via private plane.
A plane carrying more migrants from Texas arrived in the Chicago area overnight, which @ChicagosMayor Brandon Johnson calls "a very dangerous task" by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a matter of national security.
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 31, 2023
"Governor Abbott is determined to continue to sow seeds of chaos." pic.twitter.com/tTvkWe9N0s
It's unclear whether Johnson has ever taken a single moment to contemplate the glaring irony and hypocrisy of his gripes. Does he think Texas gets warnings when thousands of illegal immigrants cross into the state every single day? In fact, as Texas tries to stop and disincentivize this onslaught, they're being legally harassed and persecuted by the federal government, run by Johnson's party. And if Chicago's "values" entail the sanctuary ethos, shouldn't Johnson welcome endless streams of migrants into his waiting, open arms? He has no good answers for any of this, so he's reduced to play the stupid, lazy card of blaming a Republican governor for daring to export a fraction of the lawless chaos Johnson supports to Johnson's city. It's pathetic, really.
Relatedly, Johnson has a big political problem on his hands with this crisis, and perhaps the only way to make any progress with the failed Biden administration is for that political problem to get much worse. After all, Chicago is hosting the Democratic National Convention later this year. It would be a fitting tribute to the president and his party for the town to be overrun with illegal immigrants and roiled by internal blue-on-blue dissent. Make it as painful as possible for them, and as difficult as possible to pull a San-Francisco-For-Xi-style magic glow-up. Yes, this is punitive. Yes, it's also necessary. The overall crisis -- already at a record-setting boil throughout the Biden years -- has actually gotten worse. Since the fiscal year began, the numbers are staggering (even by Biden standards), with December racking up the worst statistics of any month, ever. "We are now at over 760,000 migrant encounters since October 1st, making the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 also the highest ever recorded:"
BREAKING: CBP sources tell FOX there have now been over 276,00 migrant encounters at the southern border in December, the highest single month ever recorded, breaking the prior record set in September at 269,735, and there are still 3 days of December left. Record is being…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 29, 2023
#BREAKING RECORD HIGH ENCOUNTER NUMBERS AT SOUTHERN BORDER: CBP sources confirm we hit 302k+ migrant encounters for the month of December. This is the highest monthly total on record--The previous high was September 2023 when 269,735 encounters were recorded.
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) January 1, 2024
BP encountered…
Those are merely the official stats, not counting the tens of thousands of monthly known and unknown 'got-aways' who enter the country. The US government has no clue who those people are, or where they are. We're talking about nearly 2 million people in the 'known got-away' category alone since this administration took office. Again, staggering:
Since August, there are officially more arriving each month than there are children being born to American mothers.
— ~~datahazard~~ (@fentasyl) December 29, 2023
And these are just the official encounters -- we don't know how many avoided detection. https://t.co/7Bt52x0385 pic.twitter.com/2APOiICGW0
And the administration's focus is on amnesty, apparently -- an even more powerful magnet for more illegal immigration:
At a time when America is experiencing the worst border crisis in our nation’s history, it is unconscionable to hear the Biden Administration’s announcement that Secretaries Mayorkas and Blinken discussed with the President of Mexico amnesty for illegal immigrants. The United… https://t.co/V6jExFVDoV
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) December 28, 2023
More shattered records. An ongoing national disgrace. And they're meeting with the Mexicans about amnesty options. Astounding. Keep those buses rolling and the planes flying, Texas. It's one of the only factors forcing the pain to be felt by the ruling party and their press allies. In addition to New York and Chicago, may I also recommend a surge of migrant relocations to this sanctuary state, which has decided that taxpayers will foot the bill for illegal immigrants' health insurance. Let them live out the ramifications for their march toward "progress:"
Cash-strapped California will ring in the new year by offering free health care to all undocumented immigrants who qualify for the state’s government-run health insurance program. The state, which faces a $68 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, has been steadily expanding access to its Medi-Cal health insurance program for low-income residents, allowing undocumented children to qualify for the taxpayer-funded program in 2015, then expanding it under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to cover undocumented adults between the ages of 19-25 and those over 50. On Jan. 1, California will become the first state to offer free health care to all qualifying individuals — regardless of immigration status or age.
I'll leave you with the media doing its thing:
Why do Central Americans migrate to the United States when they do? Researchers pin down the role of climate change https://t.co/tjC2xPaTk9 👇
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 28, 2023
America's absentee Border Czar will surely like this ostensible 'root cause.'
Join the conversation as a VIP Member