Tipsheet

Mayor NIMBY: Look, It's 'Horrific' That Texas is Sending Illegal Migrants to New York City

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  August 09, 2022 10:25 AM

Leah highlighted this quote from New York City's Democratic Mayor, who can't quite seem to decide how he feels about the illegal immigrants arriving in his jurisdiction from Texas.  On one hand, he presides over a sanctuary city, which supposedly prides itself on welcoming and protecting unlawful migrants against federal enforcement efforts (such as they even exist anymore, under the Biden administration).  To that end, he personally went to Port Authority to greet an arriving bus for a photo op.  On the other hand, he's using words like "horrific" and seething at Texas' governor for having the audacity to burden a place like New York with a problem he evidently prefers to cheerlead from afar, rather than experiencing it firsthand.  He's rejected an invitation to travel to Texas to see the challenges faced by border authorities on a daily basis, and despite some of his preening, he clearly doesn't want the issue arriving at his doorstep.  This is classic progressive NIMBYism, border crisis addition -- via Leah's report:

“This is horrific, when you think about what the governor is doing,” he said early Sunday at the Port Authority bus terminal where the illegal immigrants were arriving.  Some of the families on the bus did not want to go to New York City, he said.  "We're finding that some of the families are on the bus that wanted to go to other locations, and they were not allowed to do so," the mayor said. "They were forced on the bus with the understanding that they were going to other locations that they wanted to go to, and when they tried to explain they were not allowed to do so." Adams accused Abbott of using the illegal immigrants as “political pawns.”...“It is unimaginable what the governor of Texas has done," [he said].

Let's examine the points Adams makes in the above clip. He starts by saying that he doesn't weigh in on border or immigration issues as the Mayor of New York City -- but he adds, shortly thereafter, that he's proud of its sanctuary city status. So he does have views on the border crisis and illegal immigration. He's effectively in favor of both of them.  He calls Gov. Abbott's program of sending a tiny fraction of illegal immigrants to 'progressive' blue cities in the Northeast "unimaginable" and "horrific."  How so?  Does anyone ask him to elaborate at all?  Notice how he doesn't deploy such words against the cartels responsible for human trafficking.  He doesn't express outrage over serial, unsustainable, uncontrolled violations of our national sovereignty or related threats to public safety.  In his telling, the good guys are the illegal immigrants, and those who show 'compassion' to them.  But as we recently highlighted, there's nothing compassionate or admirable about incentivizing any of this (content warning):


But remember, the 'bad guys' in all of this, per Adams, are Governors like Abbott and Ducey, whose borders are overrun due to the federal government's active choice not to enforce the law.  And their gravest sin his having the temerity to force supporters of the crisis to actually experience any unpleasant component of said crisis.  Adams claims that some of the migrants arriving in the Big Apple say they wanted to go to other locations, but they were bussed directly to his city.  First off, Adams just argued that everyone wants to come to New York, so Abbott's plan a "set up" against him.  Secondly, Texas authorities do not force anyone to board these buses.  Implicit in Adams' critique is the idea that illegal immigrants should be chauffeured (by some entity other than New York City, of course) to their desired destination.

If that's a privilege that Adams believes people who break our laws should be afforded, he should restructure his city's budget to make it happen.  The city of New York can use local tax dollars shuttle illegal immigrants to their chosen cities once they arrive.  If he doesn't like that, or thinks that the financial burden is too high -- as he's complained about in recent days -- he should end his critiques of border states and communities that have been bearing the brunt of this crisis for many months.  Especially since he's been mouthing off with sentiments like this:

It has created a national controversy with GOP governors from Texas and Arizona busing people to the Washington D.C. to try to highlight the migrant crisis. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott invited Adams to the border to see it himself. Adams declined the invitation on Thursday. “What the Texas governor should do is invite those who are trying to find housing in his state, to give them housing instead of sending them here,” Adams said.

His literal argument is, Texas should magically deal with these issues, and shut up about it. It's 'horrific' and 'unimaginable' that they're shipping even a small element of it to us.  How persuasive will that be to Texans or Arizonans.  As David Freddoso writes, being a sanctuary city is "all fun and games" until the consequences of that policy actually materialize in your backyard.  Then it becomes infuriating, but leftists can't direct their anger at the people who are actually responsible, so they lash out at typical partisan foes as catharsis.  It's what the White House has been doing for months.  The Press Secretary keeps scolding Republicans for using migrants as 'political pawns' or whatever, but can't articulate why these actions a problem -- certainly not compared to the fundamental root problem of the administration's border policies: 


Jean Pierre has been asked why what Abbott and Ducey are doing is worse or different from the Biden administration flying planeloads of illegal immigrants into various cities across the country, sometimes in the middle of the night.  The difference, she explained, is, uh, "political pawns."  It's just so "very different," you see.  What a circular, incoherent argument.  And they keep using it because they've got nothing else.  I'll leave you with this: 

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Mayor Adams was on hand for the cameras Sunday to greet the city’s latest busload of migrants being dumped here from Texas — only to be stunned to learn that the vast majority had  gotten off before they made it. Hizzoner said the immigrants likely bailed out early  because of their “fear” of the city. “We were led to believe about 40 people should have been on that bus. Only 14 got off,” Adams said at a 7 a.m. press conference at Midtown’s Port Authority Bus Terminal. The mayor suggested that the most likely reason was “because of the fear that something was going to happen to them if they came to this location, people got off earlier.” “And we are concerned about that because we don’t want people being dropped off [just] anywhere,” he said.

A few things he said here could be interpreted as a commentary on the city's rising crime rates, which is how the New York Post is framing it. I'm guessing he meant the migrants were worried they'd be caught and deported upon arrival. But don't they know New York is a proud sanctuary city?  Abbott should increase the bus trips to New York City, the Mayor of which is in way over his head on this issue, and is apparently eager to broadcast his ignorance and hypocrisy about it.  I discussed this on Fox earlier: