Sanctuary cities were always a fraud

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

Mayor Eric Adams is finally throwing in the towel.

He admits that the current (non) policy on illegal immigration is a disaster. He doesn’t go far enough, but his capitulation on the issue reveals a more profound truth: “sanctuary” policies were always a fraud.

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I got my first taste of this species of virtue signaling back in the 1980s, when I briefly lived in Amherst Massachusetts. The issue wasn’t immigration, but nuclear weapons, but the virtue signaling was of exactly the same type.

Amherst, you see, declared itself a “nuclear-free” zone.

Examples of idiotic liberal virtue signaling are as common as ants at a picnic, and the particular idiocy of the 1980s was the anti-nuclear movement that focused on freezing nuclear weapons production. The useful idiots believed that passing an ordinance against nuclear weapons in their municipalities would make the world a more peaceful place, and proudly put up signs informing everyone that they disagreed with Ronald Reagan’s military buildup.

You know, the buildup that destroyed the Soviet Union.

Sanctuary cities were always the same sort of thing. Cities that had no issue with illegal immigrants flooding their municipality decided to insult the ones which did, proudly declaring that, unlike the retrograde border states they were welcoming of diverse “refugees.”

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It was always BS.

Joe Biden’s policy of importing illegal migrants by the millions–he is on track to bringing in a New York City-sized population during his presidency–has started to hurt even the most remote corners of America, and suddenly having to deal with the burden is a problem.

It’s like defunding the police. It sounds nice to liberal ears, but the crime that follows gets a bit annoying.

Liberals always do this. They get on their high horse, and declare that they are for utopia and conservatives are Nazis. But if and when they have to live with the consequences of their idiocy they suddenly become whiners.

What we are witnessing is not Mayor Adams having an epiphany. He and his elite class always knew that the flood of migrants was a disaster.

They just believed that it would be a disaster for others and that they wouldn’t have to face the consequences. As soon as they do they begin flailing around, at first blaming others, and only as a last resort do they try to mitigate the cause of the problem.

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Just as Amherst in the 80s was not exactly high on the list of basing nuclear weapons, New York City never thought that tens of thousands of migrants would show up on its doorstep to demand all the benefits that the city had promised. Residents believed it was a problem for Texas, and Texans are Republicans so they deserve it.

And if a few illegal immigrants make their way to New York City, they will make good and inexpensive maids and nannies. Win-win-win. Texans get hurt, New Yorkers feel good about their superiority, and cheap labor is abundant.

It was always a fraud, and fraud is always rewarded by Democrats until the pain gets too much to bear.

Ask Joe and Hunter Biden. They have done pretty well out of fraud.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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David Strom 11:20 AM | November 21, 2024
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