AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
Recently, a number of Democrat mayors and other left-wing officials throughout the country have criticized the Biden administration amid the flood of migrants pouring into their cities. But their comments reveal that they aren’t actually upset about the open border, and they aren’t pressuring the White House to do anything to stop the invasion – instead, they’re seeing dollar signs.
In one Democrat jurisdiction after another, mayors, governors, and local officials have turned to the influx of migrants as their next big grift. They’ve taken to demanding that the federal government send them billions more taxpayer dollars to care for the migrants the Biden administration is importing.
Ironically, some of the municipalities hardest hit by the influx of migrants since Joe Biden took office have been so-called “sanctuary cities” like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, which have pledged to harbor illegal immigrants and refused to work with law enforcement to deport them.
In Chicago, far-left Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took over after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid last March, has warned that city services are on the verge of collapse amid the surge in arrivals. About 15,000 migrants are currently being housed in 27 shelters across the city, with thousands more camped out on the streets. (It’s worth noting that even this is a relatively miniscule number compared to the more than 300,000 illegal aliens who crossed the border just last month.)
Johnson has directed most of his ire at Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has sent thousands of migrants to Chicago from the border via bus and plane. Despite the fact that Johnson pledged during his mayoral campaign to “live by the promise to be a sanctuary city and welcome immigrants and refugees,” he has now accused Abbott of causing “chaos” and “attacking” Chicago by sending immigrants there.
Johnson has also offered subtle criticism of the Biden administration, complaining, “Without real, significant investment from our federal government, it won’t just be the city of Chicago that won’t be able to maintain this mission.”
But the “investment” that Johnson wants isn’t funding to close the border, restart border wall construction, or reinstate Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy – instead he wants $15 billion in cold, hard cash deposited in the bank accounts of Democrat-run cities.
In an appearance on CNN, Johnson claimed that without that money, “the entire country is now at stake.” The amount is an order of magnitude greater than the $1.4 billion Biden has requested from Congress to help blue cities deal with the influx of migrants.
It’s not just Chicago looking for a hand-out. The last week of December, Johnson joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams – who has previously demanded $10 billion to “solve” the migrant crisis – and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in urging Biden to classify the migrant crisis as a federal emergency to unlock more funds for their cities.
During a joint press conference held by the three mayors, Adams said, “We cannot continue to do the federal government’s job… We are calling for the federal declaration of emergency, financial support, and a national resettlement strategy.”
New York has been hit even harder than Chicago, with more than 160,000 migrant arrivals since Biden took office. Adams has been more explicit in his criticism of Biden, telling a group of the president’s advisors last October that there has been “no leadership” on immigration and later saying he was “baffled” by Biden’s lack of action on the issue. But Adams has similarly only demanded more federal dollars for his city, not any action to stop the flow of migrants at the border.
Denver’s Johnston added that the migrant surge “will crush city budgets around the country,” but likewise only asked for more money, not any immigration policy changes.
Democrats in Congress appear to be picking up on the trend and are pushing for more money for blue cities as well.
In an appearance on CNN on December 29, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) stated, “the problem is Congress” and urged her fellow lawmakers to allocate more money to Democrat-run sanctuary cities. “The president can’t do this by himself, he can’t just shell out money, it takes action on behalf of the House, as well as the Senate,” she said.
Crockett also explicitly said that she does not support any changes to the lax asylum laws which encourage illegal crossings by allowing virtually anyone to cross the border, claim asylum, and then stay in the country until their hearing dates, which are often years away.
Biden for his part has done his best to meet the demands of his fellow Democrats. Shortly after taking office, the president ended a Trump-era program blocking sanctuary cities from receiving certain types of federal aid, and his FY2024 budget proposal would’ve allocated $7.3 billion to the Office of Refugee Resettlement – much of which would’ve flowed directly to blue cities.
And of course, most of the money Democrat mayors are requesting would inevitably be funneled to local left-wing activist groups, many of which contribute to the very same elected officials securing federal funds for them.
For now, however, House and Senate Republicans have been able to block hand-outs on the scale of the $15 billion Chicago’s Johnson is requesting. GOP lawmakers have insisted that any funding for the border crisis be directed primarily to the border itself, not to Democrat mayors pushing for policies like mass amnesty and government welfare for illegal aliens.
For Democrat leaders, it seems, the border crisis has become just another excuse to spend billions of dollars without addressing the root problem at all.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @ShaneHarris513.
