Last year and over the course of the winter as the Biden Border Crisis was barreling ahead at full speed, busloads of illegal migrants were shipped all over the country, including to New York City. The Big Apple was quickly overrun and they eventually started shipping some of the migrants to upstate counties and communities, putting them up in hotels. This was often done over the objections of local and county officials. Now the city has announced a new program to finally get the migrants out of the hotels. But they won't be sent home or even out of the state. The plan is to move them into permanent housing by renting apartments for them. In other words, like it or not, they are going to convert them to permanent residents. And plenty of upstate folks are not happy about this at all. (Albany Times Union)
New York City officials will seek to relocate the remaining 1,800 migrants staying in upstate hotels in permanent housing by the end of the year.
But the city maintains that it may need to continue using the upstate hotels because its shelter system remains over capacity, an indication that its temporary housing plan will for now remain in perpetuity.
The city plans to connect the migrants with permanent housing, including through voluntary state-funded programs that require a person to be eligible for public assistance — the types of services that many migrants initially lacked when they were bused by New York City to makeshift shelters at hotels.
Speaking of unacceptable situations here is yet another one. Every one of those migrants is here illegally. They were not invited by the more conservative residents of the upstate counties, none of which ever declared themselves to be sanctuaries. This is all being done by the municipal government of New York City which has no jurisdiction over the counties. Most of the counties have taken the city to court seeking to block these actions, but the City Council's attorneys keep arguing that they somehow do have authority. Only a few cases have made it all the way to a ruling, but each time the courts found in favor of the counties. And yet the city perseveres.
We should also remember that the city is once again prioritizing the needs of illegal migrants over its own citizens and those in the rest of the state. We already have homeless people including veterans and plenty more who can barely pay their rent during this economic catastrophe. Nobody is paying their rent for them or giving them a free place to live. But the red carpet is being rolled out for the illegal migrants. Food, healthcare, housing... everything is free. How is this a just system in any fashion?
They also don't appear to be too concerned about what will happen to all of this housing and other goodies if Donald Trump takes office and these illegals start getting rounded up and shipped out of the country. Many of the county officials and residents will probably welcome the ICE agents with open arms. They might even throw them a ticker tape parade when they arrive. But will New York City double down and try to sue the federal government to keep the illegal migrants in their new free apartments where they really aren't wanted? I wouldn't put it past them at this point.
This problem never should have been dumped on anyone else's doorstep. If New York City wants to remain a sanctuary city and figure out what to do with the migrants, that's between the municipal voters and the City Council. Be my guest. They're turning the entire place into a hellhole anyway. But when they start shipping them out to my part of the state and demanding we pay for their housing as we watch our crime rates go up, now we've got a problem. The Democrats who run this state should really start paying more attention to the broader political spectrum. Donald Trump is only trailing Biden in New York by single digits now. Their grip on unbridled power might not be as permanent as they've been assuming.
