Last week, Leah reported on New York City Mayor Eric Adams' inexplicable decision to slash the Big Apple's police and education budgets in order to free up more funds to deal with the continuous surge of illegal immigrants making their way to America's most populous city. The move predictably outraged New Yorkers who've already been forced to deal with deteriorating conditions on their city's legendary streets and rising crime that's made it more unsafe to commute, work, and enjoy life. But now, a new poll shows that Democrats — from Mayor Adams to President Joe Biden — are losing the messaging and opinion battle surrounding the border crisis and illegal immigration, even among an overwhelming majority of Democrats across the state of New York.
So just how badly have Democrats botched immigration policy? Well, a Siena College survey found that 75 percent of New York Democrats — and 82 percent of all New Yorkers — view the surge of illegal immigrants as a "serious problem."
Not only do three-in-four NY Dems know there's a crisis brewing in their communities despite being far from the U.S.-Mexico border, but more than half — 53 percent — of New York Democrats say that the Empire State has "already done enough" to help illegal immigrants and its leaders "should now work to slow the flow of migrants to New York."
75% of NY Dems say recent influx of migrants to the state is a "serious" problem.
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 20, 2023
About half say it's "very serious" and agree w/ statement that state has "already done enough for new migrants and should now work to slow the flow of migrants to New York."
(via @SienaResearch) pic.twitter.com/A3A4hpdpXM
Despite proudly declaring it a "sanctuary" for illegal immigrants and using the poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the State of Liberty to shame supposedly "xenophobic" residents for pointing to the failure of Democrat immigration policies that created the current crisis, New Yorkers are fed up — and reasonably so.
If New Yorkers want to "slow the flow" of illegal immigrants, a great start would be securing the border, an apparently novel idea. In addition, ending New York's open-arms policy for those who illegally enter the country would go a long way toward dissuading unlawful entrants from essentially laying siege to cities — including the Big Apple — who are so overwhelmed by illegal aliens that they can't afford to continue funding public safety and education.
Polls such as this Siena survey ought to be a shot across the bow to Democrats, not just in New York but also in D.C.: secure the border, stop the paydays for those who criminally enter our country, and get to work streamlining the legal immigration process. The system is broken, but discarding all laws and ignoring the existence of international borders is no way to repair it — even New York Democrats know it.
"President Biden and House Democrats have allowed our southern border to descend into complete chaos, and New York’s failing one-party liberal rule has forced the city and its residents to bear the brunt of it," reminded Congressional Leadership Fund Communications Director Courtney Parella. "New Yorkers are fed up and ready to elect and reelect commonsense Republicans, who will actually hear their concerns and fight for change in Washington," she said with an eye on 2024.