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October 8, 2022

Eric Adams blasts illegal migrant influx into New York City as 'not sustainable'

By Monica Showalter

While attention is focused on inflation and whether Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons on us, the ongoing crisis of open borders continues, with Joe Biden & Co.  leaving the gate open.

According to New York's mayor, Eric Adams, the situation is not an outrage or violation of U.S. principles of rule of law, but, to use a favorite leftist phrase, "not sustainable."

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's mayor declared a state of emergency on Friday over the thousands of migrants being sent from southern border states since the spring, saying the demand being put on the city to provide housing and other assistance is "not sustainable."

"A city recovering from an ongoing global pandemic is being overwhelmed by a humanitarian crisis made by human hands," Mayor Eric Adams said. "We are at the edge of the precipice. ... We need help. And we need it now."

By the end of its fiscal year, Adams said the city expected to spend $1 billion helping the new arrivals, many of whom are heavily reliant on government aid because federal law prohibits them from working in the U.S.

Adams, a Democrat, said the new arrivals are welcome in the city. And he spoke with pride of New York City's history as a landing spot for new immigrants.

We've already heard about him carping about migrants entering his city, whether bussed in by border-state governors and mayors, by Joe Biden with his secret flights into various places at nighttime, or on their own. Somehow, it's only a problem when the migrants hit his city, never mind what the border states are experiencing. New York City has taken in, at last count, a few thousant extra unvetted illegal immigrants, nothing like the million-plus illegal migrants that border states have been forced to "welcome" whether they wanted to, or not..
 
But Adams had his demands on behalf of the city he leads:
 
He called for state and federal financial aid, federal legislation that would allow asylum seekers to legally work sooner, and federal plans to fairly distribute asylum seekers throughout the country "to ensure everyone is doing their part."
Yes, of course -- have the taxpayers pay for New York's overly generous illegal migrant welcome wagon, incentivize new illegal immigration by handing every unvetted migrant a work permit upon entry into the country, and "fairly" distribute that migrant inflow which is sure to grow if the other two demands are met. The most comical part of that statement is in that last part: Were the migrant flow to be equitably distributed, Adams would be looking at tens of thousands more illegal immigrants into his city from border states, not fewer.
 
It goes to show the Biden administration's misuse of asylum law is creating problems on an untold scale. All an illegal migrant needs any more is that magic word "asylum" and he's free to move about the country.
 
Adams's plaint is laughable, though, given that most of the migrant buses coming in to New York now are from El Paso, where the Democrat mayor there is shipping them out. Adams would have us think the problem is the Republicans, particularly the Texas governor.
 
But the bussings are voluntary, migrants volunteer to get on these buses, no governor forces migrants onto them -- and the illegal migrants come to New York because, not having sponsors who will pay for them, they find New York the most attractive option. For New York, which is one of the costliest cities in the country for housing, it gets expensive for the city but not the migrants, because the migrants don't pay. Other cities, which don't offer migrants free housing, are expensive from the point of view of the migrants. 
 
New York's insane "right to housing" law is a driver of illegal migration into the city -- the law requires the city to provide free housing to all comers. Maybe if Adams worked on repealing that "unsustainable" incentive to go to New York, and offered illegal migrants the same housing deal other Americans get, which is to say, you get housing if you can pay for it, New York might be less of a draw.
 
But Adams would rather continue the welcome wagon, complete with welcome packets, and carp when he runs out of money for it, insisting that taxpayers from other cities pick up the tab. He'd get the credit -- and votes -- they'd get the bill for his "generosity."
 
That's about as unsustainable as such things come. But don't expect him to look in the mirror, let alone clean up his act.
 
If he wants to "welcome" migrants, he's going to have to pay for them. That's what sustainable means. That message may come through loud and clear come November, should he not grab the cash from Joe Biden sooner. But we all know why he's making his "sustainability" complaints now.
 
Image: Screen shot from NBC News Now video, via YouTube
 
 
 
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