The Country Requires a Border
NYC is fed up; where is the federal government?
Yesterday, Mayor Eric Adams and the NY City Council hosted a rally to demand work permits for the 60,000 or so migrants currently being housed by the city. Indeed, New York has processed over 100,000 asylum seekers since border state governors like Greg Abbott of Texas starting bussing some of the illegal crossers to so-called “sanctuary cities” a year ago.
The mayor and the council believe that if the state of New York and/or the Federal government will allow these migrants to get jobs that it will ease their burden of providing shelter, food and other services to these migrants. Because the Border crisis is such a hot political issue, the Mayor and NY Governor Hochul stopped short of mentioning border policies. They nonetheless continue to argue back and forth with the Biden Administration in a rare dustup amongst Democratic elected officials.
Indeed the proverbial shite has hit the fan, as sanctuary cities across the country struggle to keep up with the historically massive influx of migrants since the Biden administration has taken over the White Houses.
Apprehensions and expulsions registered by the United States border patrol from the fiscal year of 1990 to 2022
Critics of Governors Abbott, DeSantis and others have claimed that bussing migrants to these cities is a political stunt; in my mind, it was a good way to shift the burden and force Democrats to deal with the no-good border policies of the administration. While the administration - especially DHS Secretary Mayorkas - continues to claim without evidence that the border is secure, the only people who can ultimately hold the President accountable until the next election are his fellow Democrats.
Meanwhile the costs of our porous border are skyrocketing. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that the American taxpayers cost for illegal immigration is $150B in 2023. That is up over 30% in just 5 years ago and means it costs each American taxpayer $1,156 per year.
Not only is illegal immigration costly, but it hurts the working poor and middle class with lower wages and contributes to wealth inequality.
“Immigration redistributes wealth from those who compete with immigrants to those who use immigrants—from the employee to the employer.” -George J. Borjas Professor of Economics and Social Policy at Harvard
Yes, a well structured and thought out immigration plan to bring highly skilled workers and entrepreneurs - the best and brightest - would be a wonderful benefit to the American people. Immigrants of course built this country and have a lot to contribute. But our current, broken system of allowing seemingly all migrants to claim asylum accomplishes none of that, and hurts both Americans and many immigrants.
Indeed, the lawlessness at the border has been reported to cause:
at least 853 migrant deaths in one year while attempting to cross our southern border
50,000 humans trafficked into the US each year for exploitation, including slavery and child sex trafficking
50 million fentanyl-laced pills and 10,000 lbs. of fentanyl powder seized in 2022 alone - enough fentanyl to kill every American. 70,000 Americans died that year of synthetic opioid overdoses.
Our open, porous border is the biggest humanitarian crisis in American history. Our President, our Vice President (paging the Border Czar!), the entire Cabinet and Congress are derelict in their duties to provide basic law and order for the Country. It should be the primary issue of the Presidential campaign to come, and I hope my fellow Americans will join me in the fight to hold our leaders accountable and work to re-take control of our porous border.