New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the Garden State has no resources available to help New York amid its migrant crisis.
“I don’t see any scenario where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or frankly elsewhere in the state,” the Democrat governor told News 12 last week, referencing a suggestion from the Biden administration to house some of the asylum seekers at Atlantic City International Airport, a federally owned facility.
“You need scale, enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything that we can afford,” he continued.
Murphy noted that migrants have already come to the state from New York and elsewhere.
“Putting everything else aside, I just don’t see it,” the governor added.
Neither does New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Adams, who still has about 60,000 illegal border crossers in the Big Apple's care, has tried to get other New York counties to take in migrants, easing some of the burden on the city, but to no avail.
“We cannot and will not force other parts of our state to shelter migrants, nor are we going to be asking these migrants to move to other parts of the state against their will,” Hochul said in a recent statement, highlighting the growing tension between the two Democrats.
Republicans, meanwhile, say the problem is one of Democrats' own making.
“When you create a sanctuary city policy that invites migrants to come regardless of their status, you are going to get a lot of people coming, and now they can’t handle the influx," said New York Rep. Mike Lawler, The New York Times reports.
Garden State Republicans said they, too, would fight any effort by the Biden administration to force migrants on the state.
"We will fight this with every ounce of strength that we have," vowed NJ GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew. "It is the wrong thing.”
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State lawmakers also pushed back.
“My message to Governor Phil Murphy and Democrat leadership is clear. We must stop the Biden administration from exacerbating the humanitarian crisis that they created by passing the buck on to New Jersey from New York City,” said State Sen. Anthony Bucco. “This is yet another example of how President Biden and Democrats in Washington have not taken immigration issues seriously. New Jersey cannot afford to be the backstop for New York City’s failure to house migrants as a sanctuary city. I’m calling on all elected officials in New Jersey to stand against this outlandish proposal from the Biden administration and to protect our residents from the obvious failures of sanctuary state and city policies.”
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