Dem Govs, Mayors Declared Emergencies After Receiving Trickle Of Southern Border’s Migrant Flood

Dem Govs, Mayors Declared Emergencies After Receiving Trickle Of Southern Border’s Migrant Flood

Jennie Taer on August 13, 2023

Even as southern border communities deal with an influx of thousands of migrants each day, Democrat-run cities and states have declared emergencies after a few hundred or thousand migrant arrivals, according to a review of their declarations.

Democratic leaders in Denver, Massachusetts, New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago and the state of Illinois have all declared emergencies over hundreds to a few thousand migrants arriving to their cities and in their shelters in recent months. Meanwhile, illegal migrant encounters at the southern border have remained high, according to federal data.

Border Patrol recorded more than 1.2 million illegal migrant encounters in the state of Texas in all of fiscal year 2022, more than 561,000 in Arizona over the same time period, more than 142,000 in New Mexico and roughly 249,000 in California, according to federal data. Agents have recorded more 1.5 million illegal migrant encounters across the aforementioned southern border states between October 2022 and June.

“These sanctuary cities and states like New York City, DC, Chicago, New York and Massachusetts exhibit the height of hypocrisy. These Mayors and Governors have loudly proclaimed their sanctuary status all the while chastising the border cities and states for intolerance,” J.J. Carrell, who served as deputy patrol agent in charge for U.S. Border Patrol, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“However, they all now demand that Biden close the borders because they have spent all their resources. Think about that, they spent all their resources on foreign illegal aliens while ignoring the needs of their own residents!”

The latest declaration came from Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Aug. 8 as the state had roughly 5,500 migrants in its care.

“This state of emergency arises from numerous factors, among them federal policies on immigration and work authorization, inadequate production of affordable housing over the last decade, and the end of COVID-era food and housing security programs. The need for action is urgent,” Healey wrote to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a letter pleading for help.

Democratic Denver Mayor Michael Hancock declared a state of emergency Sept. 8 while housing 404 illegal migrants in city emergency shelters.

Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of emergency in September after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and then-Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey had bused roughly 9,400 migrants from the southern border to the nation’s capital.

Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency in October, citing Abbott’s buses arriving to the Big Apple. At that time, the city had received roughly 17,000 migrants.

In total, Abbott has bused more than 30,000 migrants to sanctuary cities and states across the country, he said in a Thursday tweet.

“Our social services and our values are being exploited by others for political gain. New Yorkers are angry, I am angry too. We have not asked for this. There was never any agreement to take on the job of supporting thousands of asylum seekers. This responsibility was simply handed to us without warning as buses began showing up,” Adams said at the time.

Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker made an emergency declaration Sept. 14 after Abbott had bused roughly 500 migrants to his state, followed by then-Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot in May with the arrival of roughly 8,000 migrants.

Meanwhile, Abbott continues to put the blame on the Biden administration to solve the issue stemming from the southern border.

“We will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities until Biden does his job & secures the border,” Abbott said Thursday.