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NYC receives $130M for migrant crisis and Senator Sinema has some thoughts

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been having hissy fits over the influx of illegal aliens arriving from Texas. He has this problem because he announced to the world that New York City is a sanctuary city where everyone is welcome, regardless of legal status. Welcome to the party, pal.

It turns out that Adams isn’t really so welcoming as he would like to virtue-signal. Once Governor Abbott took him up on his claim, suddenly the reality of illegal immigration set in. It costs money to provide services for those who arrive with nothing but a backpack filled with a few personal belongings. They need shelter, food, medical care, schools for children, and clothing.

Adams has continually called for more federal dollars from Washington, D.C. to foot the bill. He got New York politicians like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer involved. There is a presidential election coming up and Democrats are desperate to re-elect Joe Biden so all potential Democrat voters must be harnessed. Can’t have New Yorkers unhappy that they are being ignored by the Biden administration, now can we?

New York City is the recipient of $130M through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter Services Program. Instead of the money going to a border state with far greater needs to handle illegal aliens than New York City, that chunk of federal (taxpayer) dollars is going to NYC. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who is now an Independent, lashed out at Chuck Schumer over the decision to send the money to New York. She said it was done because Schumer is from New York. Sinema was 2,500 miles away in Yuma, Arizona participating in a roundtable for first responders, listening to how the illegal immigration crisis has affected their work.

Sinema is no longer registered as a Democrat, she is a registered Independent, though she still caucuses with Senate Democrats. Never one to back away from speaking out, she is even more free to voice her opinions as an Independent. She let it rip against the decision to send the money to New York.

‘My staff is gonna be really upset but I’m gonna tell you the truth here,’ she said.

‘The reason the money is going to New York is because … the leader of the United States Senate is from New York. That is how a bunch of money went to New York.’

Her fury was clear in her facial expression. And in the heat of the moment she appeared to err, saying the House Speaker was from New York.

In fact Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy is from California. But her target may have been the Democratic leader in the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is from New York.

The money should have gone to border states, she said. Diverting the funds to New York was wrong.

‘The money was intended, and there’s language that was put in in the law that said it should be going for decompression at the border,’ she said.

‘The fact that a yeoman’s amount of this money went to New York City in my opinion is wrong because they are not a border state and they are not facing the kind of pressure that we are facing here.’

The program was created by Congress to help Customs and Border Protection manage processing, prevent overcrowding at the agency’s short-term facilities, and ease stress on host communities.

Border states like Arizona and Texas have been dealing with a flood of illegal immigrants for more than three years, as long as Joe Biden has been in the White House. He opened the border through executive orders on his first day in office and the rest is history. Border states are on their own. Biden opened the southern border but he didn’t provide support for the consequences. Border communities are overwhelmed and their resources have been depleted. Public services have been overwhelmed. Border city hospitals and school systems are bearing the burden. First responders are working overtime to deal with the Biden border crisis. It is a humanitarian disaster. The taxpayers of border states have provided the funding to do what they can to protect their states.

To compare the federal funding, Sinema pointed out that Arizona received about $45.4M in the first round of funding, and will receive another $23.9M. In contrast, New York received about $30M in the first round, and will receive another $104.6M. Does this sound right? Sinema says no.

‘I am livid that the administration is sending money to a part of the country that while it has a lot of folks showing up in their shelters, they don’t have folks wandering the streets of our small towns,’ she said.

‘And communities that are facing heat exhaustion, showing up without basics like formula. People will come across the border with chickenpox.

‘What we’re experiencing here in Arizona, is matched only by what folks are experiencing in southern Texas. Those are the two communities that are experiencing this crisis.’

Sinema is right to speak out and call it what it is – political favoritism in a presidential election cycle. Too bad her righteous indignation is wasted on Joe Biden and Senate Democrats like Schumer. They don’t care. All that matters is to hold on to power. Joe Biden has bent a knee to the far-left since he entered the White House, hoping to stay in power. Most Americans, though, are not on the same page and that is why Biden is so unpopular in national polls.

As more and more communities across the country feel the effects of illegal immigration, more Democrats will be emboldened to speak out. Even Mayor Adams now says the southern border must be secured. Funny how that happens once a really bad policy affects areas away from the border. Joe Biden has turned every state into a border state. It’s intentional and everyone should be ‘livid’ about it.

Nothing will change before 2024. Recent Congressional hearings have shown that any hopes of getting rid of DHS Secretary Mayorkas is pie-in-the-sky wishcraft. He does the bidding for Biden’s bone-headed policies. Congressional Democrats do the bidding of Biden, too. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) recently asked Mayorkas if the border is secure. Mayorkas said yes and that was good enough for him. He parroted the response from Mayorkas. The only hope for a change in border security policy is at the ballot box in 2024. Get rid of Biden and replace him with a Republican president willing to secure the border and restore American sovereignty.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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