We'll tell you about two stories, both out of New York, where officials are struggling to grapple with the influx of illegal migrants being sent to their jurisdiction from the border. We told you last week about how New York City Mayor Eric Adams suspended (apparently worthless) "rules" governing shelter guarantees because the Big Apple was already over capacity. Adams has said in the past that the crisis of housing illegal immigrants should be dealt with by border states, and Texas in particular. He's the proud leader of a "sanctuary" city, in theory, but he's not really interested in offering much meaningful sanctuary when the going gets tough.
I mentioned it then, and I'll repeat the point again: What is the point of having such policies if they can be waved away with a wand as soon as they become problematic for the politicians in charge?
New York City is temporarily suspending some of the rules related to its longstanding guarantee of shelter to anyone who needs it as officials struggle to find housing for migrants arriving from the southern border. Under an executive order, the city is suspending rules that require families to be placed in private rooms with bathrooms and kitchens, not in group settings, and that set a nightly deadline for newly arriving families to be placed in shelters. A spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams confirmed the decision on Wednesday night, saying that the city had “reached our limit” and ended up having to place newly arrived migrants in gyms last week.
These preeners don't care at all about the border communities who've been crushed -- totally blowing past their limits -- for years amid this crisis. It's only an emergency when it impacts them. These are myopic virtue signalers. In our post last week, we also mentioned Chicago residents objecting strenuously to their leaders bringing hundreds of illegal immigrants into their communities. As Katie highlighted as well, those frustrations continue to boil over in a city that is already beset by so many existing problems:
South Shore, Chicago voted for Joe Biden in 2020 by a whopping 97%
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 12, 2023
This is how residents are reacting to 250-500 migrants coming to their area: pic.twitter.com/X4lbibdStV
Back to New York. How will average voters feel about these priorities?
Joe Biden and Mayorkas should burn in hell for this. Unspeakably disgusting: Two dozen struggling homeless veterans have been booted from upstate hotels to make room for illegal migrants https://t.co/oA13Fxxj8j
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) May 13, 2023
Nearly two dozen struggling homeless veterans have been booted from upstate hotels to make room for migrants, says a nonprofit group that works with the vets. The ex-military — including a 24-year-old man in desperate need of help after serving in Afghanistan — were told by the hotels at the beginning of the week that their temporary housing was getting pulled out from under them at the establishments and that they’d have to move on to another spot, according to the group and a sickened local pol. “Our veterans have been placed in another hotel due to what’s going on with the immigrants,’’ said Sharon Toney-Finch, the CEO of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation...Toney-Finch said 15 of the veterans got the heave-ho from the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh about 60 miles north of New York City in Orange County — a new epicenter of Big Apple’s migrant crisis since Mayor Eric Adams began bussing Gotham’s overflow there against local officials’ wishes. The other five displaced veterans were split between two other local facilities — the Super 8 and Hampton Inn & Suites in Middletown, Toney-Finch said. The Middletown hotels are not believed to have migrants yet but were reportedly on the city’s shortlist to take some.
And in what possible way is this fair or acceptable?
A Florida couple has had their wedding upended after an Orange County hotel — set to take in migrants from New York City — abruptly canceled the rooms she booked for her guests, she told The Post. “We felt discarded, disappointed and angry that they just tossed us aside to make an extra dollar for the hotel. It’s just not right,” Deanna Mifsud, 35, fumed. Mifsud and Gary Moretti, 37, are both originally from New York, and plan to marry June 24 at Lippincott Manor in upstate Walkill, with 160 guests from throughout the country expected to attend, she said. For the big day, the couple’s guests had a total of 30 rooms booked at The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, about 20 minutes from their venue...“We signed a contract. We had a legal contract to have those rooms,” Moretti said. “We just wanted everybody to be safe and have a good time.” ...But everything was upended when they learned the Crossroads was set to accept migrants from NYC, who are being bused to hotels in Westchester and the Hudson Valley as the city struggles to deal with the influx of immigrants pouring over the border. So they called the hotel and learned their reservation had been tossed aside. The hotel told them to call Choice Management, which oversees the facility. “We were on hold for 45-plus minutes and were ultimately told, ‘We can’t do anything for you, bye bye,’ and we were hung up on,” Mifsud recalled, adding only one guest had gotten notice of the cancellation. “Some people have cancelled already,” she said.
There's reportedly another couple facing the same problem, according to a local NBC affiliate. It's not productive, in my mind, to blame the illegal immigrants for any of this. The vast majority of "asylum seekers" have no right to be in this country, and that matters a great deal. But they're mostly just human beings making rational decisions based on incentives created by American policies and politicians. Those policy-makers and their apologists and propagandists are the ones who deserve the majority of our collective scorn. Meanwhile, the administration has no answers on another disturbing component of the disgrace they've unleashed:
Putting aside the disaster at the border, people need to understand that the gov't has no idea where most of these kids are and ORR is barely vetting most of the guardians they are placing kids with. https://t.co/epaRyteHgS
— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 13, 2023
For years, the Biden WH has been well aware of the brutal human toll their policy-caused border crisis is taking, especially on women & children. They have rejected solutions to reverse perverse incentives — and have often avoided even talking about it.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 12, 2023
The cruelty is the point?
Biden in May of 2019.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) May 12, 2023
Today as reports circulate of a migrant child death in US custody - hours after title 42 is lifted - Biden admin officials forced reporters to submit pre-written questions and ignored FOX’s question on this reported death. https://t.co/CdWRWYkOih
The lies and the spin continue as the administration finally imposes exclusion policies that appear to be drastically slowing the explosion of crossings and releases:
NEW: Adding to these numbers... CBP Sources tell FOX News that there were less than 500 encounters in the last 24hrs in the RGV sector... Quite a drop from 3,300 on Mon 5/8 @FoxNews https://t.co/TfhRPflKxr
— Griff Jenkins (@GriffJenkins) May 14, 2023
Since Friday, illegal crossings have plummeted in El Paso, so capacity has likely gotten eased up significantly via releases. This video is a snapshot of what it was like on Friday.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 14, 2023
The problem is still massive, but a crackdown based on new policies appears to be making a real dent. These policies were always just sitting there, waiting to be enacted, but the people in charge willfully, intentionally refused to do so. Facing terrible optics, astonishing numbers, and a real political problem, they're finally doing something, and illegal entries have "fallen off a cliff" -- two-plus years and roughly 6.5 million illegal crossings too late. I'll leave you with vignettes illustrating that the crisis is very, very far from over:
🚨: A Border Patrol source in Yuma, AZ tells me only two agents were recently assigned to patrol 70 miles of the border. Normal number in non-crisis times is minimum of 18, “preferably more.”
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) May 14, 2023
Just talked with a migrant from Colombia who was released with a court date in 2026 pic.twitter.com/KJNR0DnNpQ
— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) May 14, 2023
I have reached out to CBP for comment, they tell me they will get back to me.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 14, 2023
CA Congressman @DarrellIssa represents the area, and tells me his office has confirmed the arrest with their CBP contact. He released the following statement in response. pic.twitter.com/Gs5TIdfFk6
