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Democrats have always exhibited great arrogance and self-righteousness when talking about immigration. They present themselves as the defenders of the “rights” of migrants and claim to be committed to welcoming them into the country.
Their hypocrisy, however, has been evidenced by the arrival of thousands of migrants in the Democratic cities of Chicago, NY, and DC and the liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts in recent weeks, sent there by the Republican governors of Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Instead of welcoming them with open arms, all Democratic mayors in these cities have done is complain about not having the resources and capacity to take care of them and blame the governors for sending them there.
It is truly ironic that these mayors are now complaining about the irregular arrival of illegal migrants to their cities when these cities are self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” —jurisdictions that take in undocumented immigrants and offer them protection from deportation— when the three leaders of these cities have consistently criticized Republican efforts to close the border to the illegal entry of migrants.
In 2019, for example, now-New York Mayor Eric Adams, as a mayoral candidate, called the border wall the Trump administration was building “racist” and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot stated that “no wall will ever stop Chicago from welcoming immigrants and refugees who are seeking to build a better life for themselves and their families.”
Clearly, as long as the migrants coming across the border did not go to their cities and stayed in border states, it was easy for these mayors to make all kinds of promises to the migrant community and favor open border policies. The problem was someone else’s, not theirs.
Now that the border crisis has reached their cities, their rhetoric has changed. Suddenly, they are no longer prepared to receive migrants. The mayor of New York said that migrants were putting pressure on the city’s resources and the mayor of Chicago declared that “this is not something we have budgeted for.” Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, meanwhile, declared a public emergency in the city and asked the Pentagon to send National Guard troops to handle the influx of migrants.
Bowser even went so far as to claim that Washington is not prepared to receive the migrants because “it [is] not a border city,” as if cities in border states have additional means to receive the historically high number of migrants that are arriving across the border. The reality is that, contrary to what Democrats tell us, neither border cities nor cities in the interior of the country have the capacity to receive so many migrants all at once.
Democrats also demonstrate their two-facedness when they viscerally attack Republican governors for transporting migrants into the interior of the country, but at the same time give President Biden a pass for doing the same. It is known that the Biden administration has been secretly sending migrants on night flights from border states to different parts of the country, without coordinating with mayors or governors. However, while they lambast the governors, calling them, among other things, “inhumane,” “cruel”, and “un-American,” they are silent about Biden.
What is truly inhumane, however, are President Biden’s immigration policies, which continue to encourage unprecedented numbers of people, mostly from Latin America, to make the dangerous journey to our southern border, where thousands die and many more are victims of crime and violence. About this true humanitarian crisis, Democrats don’t want to talk.
The migrants that Arizona, Florida, and Texas are transporting to Democratic cities and communities are treated with respect and dignity. They are not forced to get on a plane or bus. They do so voluntarily and after signing a document explaining the details of the trip. They are also provided with food and water. The migrants, moreover, are grateful for this because they want to reach these cities to meet relatives or acquaintances. One of them summed up the feelings of most of the migrants when he told a Time magazine reporter: “It is extraordinary that [Texas Governor Abbott] wants to help us.”
Shuttling illegal immigrants from border states to Democratic cities is clearly not going to solve the problem, but it does help draw the nation’s attention to the immigration crisis that the Democrats pretend to ignore. And, as the American people become aware of the severity of this crisis, they are also realizing that the Democrats’ immigration talk is pure demagoguery.
Alfonso Aguilar es de Senior VP and Political Director de El American, exjefe de la Oficina de Ciudadanía de los Estados Unidos durante la administración del presidente George W. Bush y presidente del Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. // Alfonso Aguilar is the Senior VP and Political Director of El American and former head of the Office of United States Citizenship during the administration of President George W. Bush and president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.