How much longer will Joe Biden be able to ignore the cries for help from the Democratic mayors of big cities who have been overwhelmed by the president’s lax border policies?
As he did with victims of the Maui wildfires, Joe Biden can’t be bothered. There have been nearly 100,000 asylum seekers overwhelming New York City shelters and migrant resources — largely invited by the president — but Biden, fearing any connection to the crisis, refuses to do more than a pittance to help New York City and state.
“I’m fully aware that New Yorkers are concerned that over the past year, more than 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in our state, requiring a historic humanitarian response,” N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “Moments ago, I issued a letter to the Biden administration formally requesting that it take executive action to address New York’s migrant crisis.”
It’s really a matter of presidential election politics. If Biden helps New York City and state, he acknowledges there’s a crisis — a crisis he could have easily avoided. Presidents running for re-election don’t normally acknowledge a crisis, especially an avoidable crisis and one of their own making.
Hochul elaborated, “What we’ve said all along is just let them work and help us out financially. That’s why today I have sent a letter to President Biden formally requesting immediate executive action in four key areas. First, expedited work authorization, so we can get these people out of shelters and into the jobs. Financial support, federal housing vouchers, schools, health care, legal services, case and shelter for us to provide to these asylum seekers.”
The governor said that the migrant crisis “originated with the federal government” and “must be resolved through the federal government,” but claimed that the state’s “countless unfilled jobs” provided a prime opportunity to integrate border crossers.
It’s a tempting solution; speed up green card authorizations to fill some of the jobs that are available now. But few of these asylum seekers are proficient in English, many lack any employable skills, and are in need of training and psychological help before being able to get a job.
First things first: New York needs cash from Washington to deal with the immediate crisis of housing, feeding, and caring for the asylum seekers.
“We are ready to act as soon as these migrants receive work. But right now, because we’ve been waiting a very long time, the State Department of Labor, we are launching a new program this September to place asylum seekers in jobs just as soon as they’re legally able to work,” Hochul announced. “And we’re going to go a step further. And I’m ordering the Department of Labor to proactively connect asylum seekers with potential employers in anticipation of them receiving the work authorization before they are already authorized.”
Related: Finger-Pointing Among New York Democrats Over Migrant Crisis Becoming Comical
But Hochul couldn’t resist a dig at her nemesis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“It started at our nation’s southern border when Governor of Texas Greg Abbott made the despicable decision to load migrants onto buses and shipped them out to score cheap political points, treating these individuals as pawns,” Hochul said. “Since that time, the state has deployed enormous resources toward New York City’s valiant efforts to shelter and support these nearly 100,000 migrants who have already arrived here.”
According to CBS News from last May, Abbott has sent 19,000 asylum seekers “to Washington, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia on more than 400 buses. “The number is a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers released from federal border custody during that period,” according to the CBS report.
The Democratic mayors and Hochul are claiming that Abbott busing asylum seekers from the borders to big northern cities run by Democrats is nothing but a political stunt. That’s absolutely correct. But it’s a necessary stunt because the sanctuary city Democrats and “Silent Joe” in Washington aren’t lifting a finger to ease the burden on Texas border towns. These are overrun with the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers overwhelming Texas’s shelters and resources.
Until they do, Hochul won’t get much sympathy from Abbott.
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