We’ve seen the ripples in Joe Biden’s pond of Democratic unity spreading across the country after he tossed the boulder of a border crisis into the water. We saw it in New York City and again in Los Angeles. Now the tide appears to be washing up on the shores of Chicago and the state of Illinois. The Windy City has been awash in illegal migrants who are camping in the streets and taking up more space at O’Hare airport than the paying travelers. Now, Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker appears to have reached the breaking point. He has penned a letter to Joe Biden and (probably too politely) called the current migrant crisis “untenable” while demanding action. And unlike Kathy Hochul in New York, Pritzker isn’t just demanding more money to deal with the migrants in his state. He’s calling out Biden’s “lack of intervention and coordination at the border” as the root cause of the problem. (NBC News)

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday fired off a letter to President Joe Biden about an “untenable” migrant crisis here, calling for an overhaul to the system and blasting the White House for a “lack of intervention and coordination at the border.”

The Democratic governor said the state’s resources were beyond strained after Texas officials bused more than 15,000 migrants were bused to Illinois in the past year.

“Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government,” Pritzker wrote. “Most critically, the federal government’s lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.”

While the Governor did manage to lay more of the blame at Biden’s feet (where it belongs), he couldn’t resist his leftist impulses entirely. He included a call for his own version of a “Remain in Texas” policy to be enforced by Washington. Without specifically invoking the name of Greg Abbott or the Lonestar State, Pritzker complained that “one state” cannot be allowed to “lay the burden upon a certain few states run by Democrats.” It was a clear reference to Abbott’s buses that continue to show up in Chicago.

But his complaint is nonsensical for several reasons. First of all, the buses from Texas don’t account for anywhere near a majority of the illegal migrants currently camping out in and around Chicago. Many migrants travel there voluntarily, either because they have contacts in the area or because Chicago has been popularized as a sanctuary destination. And it’s not “a certain few states” or cities where this is happening. Every state is a border state now and the migrants are showing up everywhere.

It’s also worth noting that a “Remain in Texas” policy would be completely illegal and unenforceable. Once a person has been “accepted” into the United States, even if it’s done in violation of our laws, the President can’t impose a travel ban on them, stopping them from crossing state lines. Rhode Island tried that during the pandemic and the effort was rapidly shot down in court.

Additionally, such a request is blatantly hypocritical, though that rarely taps the brakes for most Democrats. Pritzker is claiming that it’s wrong for Texas to impose this burden on Illinois by shipping migrants there. But he clearly thinks it’s fine for “states run by Democrats” to impose a vastly larger burden on Texas by forcing the migrants to remain there. Chicago is a city of 2.7 million people with all of the resources typically associated with such an urban environment. Eagle Pass, Texas has barely 28,000 legal residents. Yet they’ve seen migrants numbering as much as almost half of their own population showing up in a single day at times. What are they supposed to do with that many people?

If there are too many illegal migrants in your city, it’s because there are too many illegal migrants coming across the border. Period. Full stop. If you want to fix the problem try demanding that Joe Biden actually close the border and stop lying about it. He still seems unlikely to listen, but if he hears from enough people in his own party, perhaps that will change.