Trump Wants to Bus Migrants to Sanctuary Cities. The Mayors There Are Fine With It
Trump Wants to Bus Migrants to Sanctuary Cities. The Mayors There Are Fine With It.
An elaborate attempt to troll liberal politicians seems to have hit a snag.
Scott Bixby, Sam Brodey
04.12.19 4:46 PM ET
https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/...t-tease_rhjne9
JIM WATSON
President Donald Trump may have assumed that his proposal to release undocumented immigrants into so-called “sanctuary cities” would back Democrats into a corner on the issue of immigration. But the local officials in those cities he’s targeting don’t seem to actually find the prospect all that foreboding.
Instead, when asked about the plan—which would entail busing migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border to be released in cities that do not cooperate with federal law enforcement to arrest undocumented immigrants—mayors of major cities, regional capitals and medium-sized towns told The Daily Beast said that they would welcome those currently being detained.
“The city would be prepared to welcome these immigrants just as we have embraced our immigrant communities for decades,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney told The Daily Beast in a statement.
“This White House plan demonstrates the utter contempt that the Trump administration has for basic human dignity and the core values on which this nation was founded.”[/COLOR]
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“As a welcoming city, we would welcome these migrants with open arms, just as we welcomed Syrian refugees, just as we welcomed Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria and just as we welcome Rohingya refugees fleeing genocide in Myanmar,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement.[/COLOR]
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“I am proud that Cambridge is a sanctuary city,” Mayor Marc McGovern of Cambridge, Massachusetts, told The Daily Beast. “Trump is a schoolyard bully who tries to intimidate and threaten people. I’m not intimidated and if asylum seekers find their way to Cambridge, we’ll welcome them.”[/COLOR]
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The response to Trump’s proposal is almost certainly not what the president expected and reflects the vast gulf that is growing between the two parties on immigration policy. The president’s idea was presented as a threat meant to scare Democrats into admitting that they wouldn’t be as accommodating of immigrant communities as they have pledged to be.[/COLOR]
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“We’ll give ’em to the sanctuary cities, maybe, to take care of, if that’s the way they want it,” Trump said during an event originally intended to pitch U.S. companies on the deployment of 5G technology. “We are looking at the possibility, strongly looking at it, to be honest with you.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]
“We’ll give them more people,” Trump continued. “We can give them an unlimited supply—let’s see if they have open arms.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]
How serious the administration is about pushing the idea remains unclear. The White House originally denied that they were seriously considering busing undocumented immigrants and migrants detained at the border to sanctuary cities, saying it was “just a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion.” But the president has since leaned into it, even tweeting that he was giving it “strong consideration.”[/COLOR]
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That gambit, experts say, is both logistically and legally dubious. And multiple mayors told The Daily Beast that it only makes the Trump administration’s immigration policy look incoherent.[/COLOR]
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“Like so many issues we are forced to talk about during this presidency, this isn’t a real idea or a real proposal, it’s just another scare tactic,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. The city, home to the congressional district currently held by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is specifically mentioned as a potential target of Trump’s policy. “Every time we talk about the president’s latest tweet… we aren’t talking about a path to citizenship for the over 10 million undocumented immigrants in our country.”[/COLOR]
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Some pointed out that the proposal would only exacerbate what the president has characterized as an immigration crisis.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...e-fine-with-it
Chicago Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot Says She Will Welcome Shipments of Illegals
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April 13, 2019
Warner Todd Huston
Chicago’s first black, gay, female mayor who will take office in May says that she would welcome shipments of illegals if the Trump administration were to send them to the Windy City.
Lightfoot’s exclamation was in response to a tweet by President Donald Trump, who said he agreed with the idea of sending busloads of illegals to so-called sanctuary cities.
The mayor-elect, though, didn’t seem to think any shipments of illegals would occur and said she thought Trump was just being “provocative,” according to Fox News. She added that Trump’s rhetoric was “much ado about nothing.”
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked Lightfoot if she agreed with outgoing Mayor Rham Emanuel that illegals are welcome in Chicago, to which she replied, “of course.”
“We have people who are routinely coming to this city. We have a whole infrastructure that’s built up to make sure that their rights are protected while the city of Chicago has, under the current administration, provided funding for various groups to help support asylum seekers and other people that are going through the immigration court system. I expect it will continue, if not expand upon, those kinds of resources,” the first-time elected official told CNN.
Lightfoot added that people need to take President Trump for what he is and not jump in outrage every time he makes a provocative tweet.
“What I’m saying is I don’t think we should take the bait every time the president puts out a provocative tweet. What I think we need to do is make sure that we are being very clear and speaking our values,” Lightfoot said.
“She continued: “We are a city that is a sanctuary city. We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They’ll continue to do that, and we’re going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants, and we want them to come to the city of Chicago,” the newly elected mayor concluded.
But the Windy City could ill afford any large number of illegals. The city already has a nearly $250 million budget shortfall, and the city already leads the nation in the number of productive citizens moving out to other states. A flood of illegals who would need public assistance would further burden an already overstretched city.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigratio...s-of-illegals/
