Can you imagine if Donald Trump or any other Republican president did nothing while tens of thousands of migrants were left with facing a winter without shelter? I daresay impeachment proceedings would already have begun.
But Joe Biden is not a Republican. He's a Democrat who is ignoring the cries of desperation from Democratic Northern big-city mayors who are facing a real disaster as a result of the president's policies that brought about the massive influx of migrants to these cities.
The shelters in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Philadelphia are full up. And yet, the migrants have kept coming. In Chicago, they're sleeping inside police stations and despite the cold weather, they're also sleeping in tents outside.
They're camping in New York too. And things are no better in the other major Northern cities. With more migrants coming all the time, where are they going to put these people when the temperature drops below freezing or even lower?
Five Democratic mayors went to the White House to plead for help from Biden. But the president says it's up to Congress to fund his immigration crisis. The mayors wanted $5 billion to help feed and shelter the newcomers.
"We are committed, as we have always been, to provide shelter, to be a city that welcomes all, but we need parity and funding. And that means that we need at least $5 billion in supplemental funding into the budget, but that the funding formula be such that cities like Chicago get their fair share," said U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago).
Biden is not going to fight for that funding. If he acknowledges the need, he acknowledges the failure of his policies. So he will leave the big-city Democratic mayors hanging, twisting in the wind while kids stay cold and have literally no place to go.
The dual crises of lowering temperatures and a lack of shelter space are forcing some jurisdictions to tighten long-standing policies that previously ensured people without homes would have a place to stay — and in some cases, confront simmering racial divides.
Federal Homeland Security officials have held legal clinics in all three states to help process thousands of migrants’ work permits more quickly. It’s a step local and state officials say is key to helping migrants provide for their families — and move out of the city and state-run shelters where they’ve been living in some cases for more than a year. The White House also included $1.4 billion for grants to local governments and nonprofits providing services for recently arrived migrants as part of a larger spending bill for Israel and Ukraine.
A DHS official not authorized to speak publicly said about $800 million has been allocated for temporary shelter and other services through various emergency food and shelter programs.
Chicago is planning on putting up a gigantic heated tent that's supposed to house 2,000 people. But advocates are dubious that a tent can withstand the brutal wind, cold, and snow of a Chicago winter.
Getting a site approved for the tent is another matter. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking to piggyback his desire to invest in "neglected" neighborhoods with cash for the migrants.
"The resources that I'm requesting for the city of Chicago are not limited to the migrant crisis," Johnson said. "That's just one component of it. Right now, there's a number that's been forward about a little bit over a billion dollars. I've said repeatedly that the West Side and the South Sides of Chicago need significant investment."
"I talked an awful lot about the investments that we have to make in neighborhoods that have been starved out for a generation now," the mayor added.
Just as former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said during the financial crisis of 2007, "Never let a crisis go to waste." Those are words Democrats live by, as proven by Joe Biden during the pandemic and his spending trillions of dollars on programs entirely unrelated to the pandemic.
There was some heated debate over the migrant crisis during Wednesday's Chicago City Council meeting.
In the process, votes on several important issues have been delayed, including the purchase of property for a base camp for migrants.
Despite the cold weather and concerns for migrants sleeping outdoors in tents, city council politics stalled action on Wednesday on that land purchase, and the mayor's team moved to sink the effort by opponents to put the future of Chicago's designation as a sanctuary city before the voters next spring.
Politicians bicker and plot. But it's not getting any warmer. And considering that almost all of the new arrivals are from places where snow is something seen only on TV and there simply isn't enough winter clothing to go around, politicians need to get off their hindquarters and help.
