‘Biden Needs To Grow A Set’: Amid Border Crisis, Dem City Leaders Feel Ghosted By President



REAGAN REESE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT
September 08, 202312:58 PM ET

Amid an influx of migrants, Democratic leaders in New York and Chicago told the Daily Caller they feel ghosted by President Joe Biden.

Throughout the last few months, several Democrat-run states and cities have become overwhelmed with migrants, often lacking enough shelter and resources to take the individuals in. Despite some action from the Biden administration, leaders feel as if the president has not responded to their calls for help.

“No communication [from the White House ] whatsoever,” Democrat Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez told the Daily Caller. “I actually sent a letter to the White House asking for the President to address this matter when he was here a few months ago. My understanding is that even with multiple talks regarding the Democratic National Convention, the topic of migrant asylum seekers has never once come up in conversation with our mayor and the President, or other high-level Democratic Party leaders.”

“I think everyone is content to just ignore the situation and hope it goes away, rather than address it not only in Chicago but in all the major cities that find themselves currently inundated with these individuals,” Lopez told the Daily Caller.

More than 2,000 migrants are being housed in police stations and airports in Chicago while public meetings are being held to discuss turning buildings into shelters, according to Axios. Chicago Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Public Schools, the fourth-largest school district in the country, announced in July that a high school would be used as a welcome center for migrants to receive behavioral care and assistance.

To help New York City, Chicago, Boston, Denver and other cities affected by an influx of migrants, the Biden administration has appropriated $770 million through the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] for the current fiscal year, according to CBS News. The White House asked Congress in August to authorize another $600 million to go towards the border crisis.

But even Democrats are saying Biden’s help is insufficient.

Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin wrote to Biden in May about the migrant crisis and to “find out” why the administration has not taken more action on the issue, Axios reported.

The aid provided to the city has not been enough to keep up with the influx of migrants, Lopez told the Daily Caller.

“So roughly speaking in the first six months of this year, Chicago has spent $163 million trying to deal with the migrant crisis,” Lopez told the Daily Caller. “And the Biden administration has sent us a whopping $12 million to help offset those costs. Clearly not matching the reality that we’re facing in this moment.”

“Additionally, while Secretary [of Homeland Security] Mayorkas and Homeland Security have been processing the would-be asylum seekers, they’ve been assigning hearing cases in the city of Chicago for the next three to six years, rather than expending the necessary resources to set up emergency hearings to address this issue more rapidly,” Lopez continued.



US President Joe Biden speaks with US Customs and Border Protection officers as he visits the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned on Wednesday during a town hall that the migrant crisis “will destroy the city” as it now takes in an additional 10,000 people each month. The city is projected to spend $12 billion over the next three years to handle the influx of migrants.

“The White House has not extended any help to our office, nor the city. Mayor Adams is quoted in saying that President Biden has given ‘no support,’ to the city on addressing the migrant crisis,” Daniel Kurzyna, chief of staff for Democratic New York City Councilman Robert Holden, told the Daily Caller. “We have not even heard of a liaison being named.”

During a July press conference, Holden and other Democratic New York leaders called on Biden to help the city handle its surge of migrants, the New York Post reported. The Adams administration began looking at potential shelter options for up to 2,000 migrants in August, such as soccer fields for children.

“I’ve been raising the alarm for months, emphasizing that President Biden is asleep at the wheel when it comes to addressing the migrant crisis,” Holden told the Daily Caller. “New York City, with over 109,000 migrants in our system, was promised a liaison and has been met with silence; it’s clear the White House has abandoned us and effectively told us to drop dead. We’ll remember this.”

The Biden administration has extended some aid to state leaders; Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul met with several Biden officials in August, though not the president himself, about the migrant crisis within the state. During the meeting with Hochul, the Biden administration pledged to help the state fill job vacancies with migrants who are straining the city’s social safety net.

Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy has received $2 million from FEMA to help the state with shelter and transportation services for migrants, Karissa Hand, Healy’s press secretary, told the Daily Caller. Healy recently met with Mayorkas to address the state’s influx of migrants, “including work authorizations,” Hand said.

Amid the backlash, the Biden administration is currently weighing a measure that would require migrants who are seeking asylum to stay in Texas. The potential action comes as Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bussed thousands of migrants to Democrat-run cities such as New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. in protest of the Biden administration’s “refusal to secure the border.”

“To be as blunt as I know how to be, President Joe Biden needs to grow a set if they’re making the tough decision that has to be said publicly, which is that if these individuals came here claiming asylum, then we need to address whether or not they have merits to that claim, and if not deport them back to Venezuela or wherever they came from immediately,” Lopez said. “No one wants to say what needs to be done.”

The White House, Adams’ office and Durbin’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/08/j...igrant-crisis/