Mayor Eric Adams has been blaming Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for New York City’s migrant crisis, which has utilized taxpayer resources. The latest exchange between the two saw Adams challenging Abbott to spend a night in a NYC migrant shelter, prompting Abbott to criticize Adams’s sanctuary city policies. A significant portion of New York’s migrants were bused from Texas, but another large number, 33,000, were flown directly into the New York region from foreign airports, accounting for 22% of the city’s migrant influx. One of these flights brought in a Haitian man who was later accused of raping a developmentally disabled teen girl.
The responsibility for New York’s migrant issues lies more with President Joe Biden, as he has not been enforcing border laws, leading to a massive influx of illegal immigrants into southern states such as Texas. The Department of Homeland Security has approved flights for over 386,000 immigrants from foreign airports into the U.S., originally targeted towards Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan nationals but eventually expanded to include five other nationalities. These immigrants are processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection once they arrive at approved U.S. international airports.
The administration has initiated these programs without Congressional authorization and has enabled the entry of over 800,000 immigrants through land and air ports by utilizing a legal authority to grant temporary humanitarian parole in emergency situations. However, the administration has not been transparent about the details of the programs, denying requests for information and obfuscating the details in monthly border statistics reports. While some information has been made available through public records, a substantial amount of information is still not disclosed to the public.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has confirmed that a large number of flights are landing in Florida, with potentially significant numbers continuing onward to destinations such as New York. DeSantis criticized the administration for not coordinating with state governments and not providing information about the immigrants being flown into the country. There is a possibility that the actual number of immigrants reaching New York from flights is higher than the reported 33,000, as some may be being processed through domestic flights from Florida.
Mayor Adams has not shown interest in investigating the actual number of migrants entering New York through these flights, which could allow him to pressure the administration to stop them. Rather, he continues to blame Republicans for the crisis while ignoring the greater responsibility that lies with the Biden administration. The lack of coordination and transparency surrounding these programs raises concerns about the impact on local communities and taxpayers, as well as the potential risks associated with unregulated migrant influx. Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, highlights the need for greater awareness and accountability in addressing the migrant crisis.
