Driven by ideology and the lure of public money, the “immigration industrial complex” pushes relentlessly for money for migrants. It gets too little pushback from veterans groups and other Americans who need help themselves, and from taxpayers forced to provide things for migrants that they can’t afford themselves — like hotel stays.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who visited El Paso, Texas, over the weekend, complained Sunday that migrants have a “false impression” that they’ll be living in hotels.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor, it’s not a false impression. You can thank yourself for the migrants’ expectations. You inked a contract with the Hotel Association of New York City on Friday, reserving 55 entire hotels exclusively for migrants. News like that spreads like wildfire, all the way to Latin America. …

The “immigration industrial complex” is pushing for more, all across the nation. Washington State just opened up its Obamacare health insurance program to the undocumented — another magnet sure to attract migrants. The Affordable Care Act expressly bars undocumented enrollees, but the Biden administration — the “immigration industrial complex’s” best friend — granted the state a waiver to include people here illegally.

[Set the incentives and the behavior will follow. If you set an incentive like the expectation of three-star accommodations and free meals, people will cross the border in droves. The same is true for access to free health care, etc etc. Set the incentives such that people expect to remain stuck in Mexico for months while their asylum applications get reviewed, and watch how behavior changes. That’s what the Remain in Mexico policy and the border wall did — it changed the incentives, until Biden and these “sanctuary city” progressives changed them back again. — Ed]