Tag: Migrants

Colorado cancels plans to send migrants to NYC, Chicago amid outcry from Democratic mayors

Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will stop sending migrants to New York City, Chicago and other major Democrat-run cities after mayors expressed outrage at the plan in recent weeks.

Polis had agreed to work with local authorities in Denver to help send migrants to their final destinations. While Colorado is not a border state, it has seen a major influx of migrants seeking passage to elsewhere in the country. Mayors Eric Adams of New York City and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago called on Polis to end his assistance last week as their cities also struggle with a surge in migrants.

“People fleeing violence and oppression in search of a better life for themselves and their families deserve our respect not political games and we are grateful we have been able to assist migrants to reach their final destination,” Polis had said of the program. “We refuse to keep people against their will if they desire to travel elsewhere.”

Adams and Lightfoot wrote to Polis in a joint letter, urging him to halt his bussing program after it sent just a few hundred migrants.

BIDEN ANNOUNCES BORDER VISIT; NEW MEASURES AS PRESSURE GROWS OVER MIGRANT SURGE

“We have seen your statements in the media that you are simply accommodating the wishes of migrants to come to cities like New York City and Chicago,” the pair wrote. “However, you are sending migrants and families to New York City and Chicago that do not have any ties, family members or community networks to welcome them.”

Adams was outraged at Polis’ bussing program during a press conference appearance last week, comparing it to similar programs that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used to flood his city with some 30,000 migrants last year.

MAYORKAS SAYS MASSIVE MIGRANT NUMBERS ‘STRAINING OUR SYSTEM,’ CALLS FOR CONGRESS TO ACT

“One time we had to deal with Republican governors sending migrants to New York. Now we’re dealing with Democratic governors sending migrants to New York,” Adams said Wednesday.

“What’s callous is how we have been ignored as a city. And now I have to make tough decisions on the resources of New York … it is time for the federal government to step up,” he added.

Adams’ plea for federal assistance comes as President Biden makes his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border Sunday. The White House also unveiled a handful of policies aimed at stemming the flow at the border last week. They include expanding a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelan nationals to include Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans, as well as increasing refugee resettlements.

Biden acknowledged the changes aren’t up to the task, however.

“These actions alone that I’m going to announce today aren’t going to fix our entire immigration system but they can help us a good deal in managing what is a difficult challenge,” he said Thursday.

12 migrants from Ireland, Great Britain arrested for illegally entering the US through Minnesota

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency says 12 migrants from Ireland and Great Britain were arrested after illegally entering the United States in northern Minnesota. Border Patrol agents, with the help of local law enforcement, intercepted the human smuggling attempt over the span of two days in late September, the agency said over the … Continue reading 12 migrants from Ireland, Great Britain arrested for illegally entering the US through Minnesota

Biden touts 'rule of law' in polarizing speech, as border is overrun with illegal migrants

President Biden, in a divisive speech taking aim at “MAGA Republicans” Thursday night, touted the importance of the “rule of law” — even as hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants hit the border each month, many of whom are released into the country.

Biden used the address, outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, to launch attacks against President Trump and his supporters while declaring that “equality and democracy are under assault.” He also said that American democracy only works if the “rule of law” is respected and slammed those who he claimed did not respect it.

“MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution,” Biden said, flanked by Marines and with a deep-red background behind him. “They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people.”

“This is a nation that believes in the rule of law,” he said at another point in the speech. “We do not repudiate it.”

BIDEN SAYS ‘MAGA REPUBLICANS’ THREATEN DEMOCRACY AS HE AND DEMS CRANK UP ANTI-TRUMP RHETORIC AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

“American democracy only works if we choose to respect the rule of law and the institutions that were set up in this chamber behind me, only if we respect our legitimate political differences,” 

However, Biden spoke as an overwhelming and ongoing migrant crisis continues to ravage the border since he took office. Currently, around 200,000 illegal migrants hit the border each month. There have been more than two million migrant encounters this fiscal year alone, after a record-setting 1.7 million last fiscal year.

While some are expelled under the Title 42 public health order — which the Biden administration is seeking to end, but has so far been blocked by a federal court — most migrants are released into the U.S. ahead of a court hearing that can be more than a year away. Asylum hearings can take five to eight years to complete, and the vast majority are ultimately denied.

The Biden administration has stopped border wall construction, ended asylum agreements that would see illegal immigrants sent to closer Central American countries to claim asylum, and stopped the Migrant Protection Protocols — which kept migrants in Mexico for their asylum process.

MAYORKAS CLAIMS SOUTHERN BORDER ‘IS SECURE’ AS HISTORIC MIGRANT CRISIS RAGES

Meanwhile, the administration has been narrowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement priorities to just recent border crossers, aggravated felons and national security threats — meaning the vast majority of those in the country illegally are not targeted for arrest or deportation. As a result, arrests and deportations have plummeted since Biden took office. A court order recently ordered the administration to halt the narrowed priorities.

Critics have accused the administration of not enforcing immigration law, including laws that require that illegal immigrants be detained on entry to the U.S. The Biden administration has claimed its mass-release policies are in line with U.S. laws, including allowing those who turn up at the border to claim asylum — even those who have passed through multiple countries, or have even flown to the continent from Africa and the Middle East. It has also claimed the border is “secure.”

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which calls for lower levels of immigration, tore into Biden for his touting of the rule of law on Thursday evening.

“If ever there was an administration that does not respect the rule of law, it is this one,” FAIR President Dan Stein said in a statement. “There is no more glaring example of lawlessness than the Biden administration’s gutting of immigration laws and border enforcement. This administration is not just refusing to enforce nearly every immigration and border enforcement law on the books, the president’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in a series of policy memos, has put it in writing. Moreover, the Biden administration is defying a federal court order to resume immigration enforcement.”

BORDER PATROL CHIEF SAYS BORDER CRISIS A RESULT OF BIDEN’S ‘NO CONSEQUENCES’ POLICY FOR ILLEGAL MIGRANTS

Stein accused the administration of “openly” refusing to remove illegal immigrants unless they are violent felons or terrorists.

“Time and again, when immigration laws are at odds with their own political objectives, our laws get chucked in the trash can,” he said. “That is the hallmark of an authoritarian dictatorship, not a constitutional republic.”

Meanwhile, former Trump-era acting Director of National Intelligence Director Richard Grenell contrasted Biden’s statements with support of jurisdictions which refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

“Joe Biden talks about the rule of law but supports Sanctuary Cities,” he said.

Meanwhile, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, whose office this week revealed that the head of Border Patrol had testified that encounters increase when there are “no consequences” for illegal entry, also accused the Biden administration of flouting the law on the border.

That testimony came as part of a lawsuit that charges that the agencies under Biden’s direction are failing to follow established federal law, specifically the Immigration and Nationality Act, that requires officials to detain illegal aliens at the border until they are sent back to their country of citizenship.

“Not only are they completely ignoring public safety immigration laws to the detriment to the security of our nation, they are also building new programs that are unlawful to bring more people over here that are illegal,” she said on Fox Business. “This administration is absolutely no question sacrificing the safety of our nation for politics.”

Fox News’ Kelly Laco contributed to this report.