Immigration Pains

Last week I did a post on how one very liberal Minneapolis woman was literally "mugged by reality." Here's another example. During the Trump administration a number of cities and states made a great show of declaring themselves "sanctuaries" for illegal immigrants. They frequently cited the Emma Lazarus poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty piously declaring that the "tired and poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free" would be welcomed in their communities.

Then the Biden administration decided to open our southern border and implicitly welcomed anyone who could cross the Rio Grande into our country without having to bother with our immigration laws and procedures. These laws the left-wing progressives in the administration declared were racist, xenophobic and cruel.

The migrants came by the thousands, perhaps millions, putting enormous strain on border states like Texas.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to relieve the burden that the Biden border policy placed on their communities by transporting some of the influx to the states and cities that were pleased to declare themselves immigrant sanctuaries. Of course, it's one thing to pronounce one's city a "sanctuary" when the problem is a thousand miles away in Texas. It's quite another to maintain the facade of moral piety when the problem is dumped on one's own doorstep.

Now the sanctuary city overseers, Democrats all, are outraged that they find themselves being required to educate, shelter and otherwise care for thousands of people who've arrived in their communities as a result of Democrat policies.

New York Mayor Eric Adams recently complained about the intolerable situation in his city:

Let me tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this. I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City.

We’re getting 10,000 migrants a month. One time we were just getting Venezuela. Now we’re getting Ecuador. Now we’re getting Russian-speaking coming through Mexico. We’ve got Western Africa. Now we’re getting people from all over the globe have made their minds up that they’re going to come through the southern part of the border and come into New York City.

And everyone is saying it’s New York City’s problem. Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We have a $12 billion deficit that we’re going to have to cut. Every service in this city is going to be impacted. All of us. . . .

....It’s going to come to your neighborhoods. All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000. And I’m telling you now, with 110,000. The city we knew we’re about to lose, and we’re all in this together. All of us.

Well, it's not a surprise that he declined to recite Emma Lazarus' poem.

It's hard to symapthize with the mayor and those who voted to make New York - and dozens of other municipalities and eleven states - an immigrant sanctuary. After all, what's happening in their communities was predicted by conservative pundits years ago. It was not hard to see it coming.

In any case, I'm sure the White House is getting an earful from mayors like Adams, and I'm fairly sure if the Biden administration doesn't fix it that Democratic loyalty will be placed under a considerable strain.

To borrow a thought from Machiavelli, many will insist upon their loyalty to the leader when the threat is far off, but when the gates and walls of the city are being overrun, the leader may find that loyalty has vanished along with those who so vigorously declared it.