Here in New York City, where the National Urban League is based, sheltering the 125,000 migrants who have arrived since last spring has pushed the city’s shelter system past capacity.
Without changes in policy and federal aid, entire families could find themselves sleeping on the street and in the subways.
Many of these families have arrived here as a result of a cruel, politically-motivated stunt: Over the last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, both Republicans, have spent millions of dollars to transport asylum-seekers to New York, Chicago and other northern cities led by Democrats, endangering their health and safety.
As a result of the governors’ deceit, desperate people seeking refuge have landed in cities where they have no connections, where shelters and social services are overwhelmed and where, the governors hope, their political rivals will be blamed for the chaos.
Their tactics recall the shameful “reverse freedom rides” of the 1960s, when segregationists coerced Black southerners to accept one-way bus tickets to northern cities with false promises of jobs and housing.
A surge of migration puts strain on cities
In truth, the roots of the migrant crisis are complex and demand complex solutions to address them. But as long as President Joe Biden’s adversaries believe they can exploit human suffering for political gain, they have no incentive to end it.
Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump promises a return to the failed and brutal policy of family separation if he is reelected, and his allies in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year passed a proposal to resume construction of a border wall and eliminate the right to asylum for refugees who reach our border.
Recent history has shown these measures don’t work, and the politicians who are pushing them know fully well they don’t. In 2019, when Trump’s policies were in effect, the number of migrants arriving at the border hit a 12-year record.
In contrast, Biden’s border policies, including new lawful pathways for asylum-seekers, were accompanied by a 70% plunge in illegal border crossings earlier this year.
However, several factors have contributed to a surge of northward migration and have hampered efforts to alleviate the strain on cities. Venezuela’s imploding economy has driven an exodus of nearly eight million people. Hundreds of thousands more have fled rampant gang violence and political turmoil in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Unlike the migrants of decades past, nearly all of whom were Mexican nationals, those who arrive from Venezuela could not be deported until recent weeks because the U.S. had no agreement with their native country.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been working with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to secure federal aid and funding to cope with the influx of asylum-seekers.
This aid is desperately needed in the short term. But only Congress can provide long-term solutions. Lawmakers could start with U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s, D-Maine, proposed legislation to reduce the period of time that asylum-seekers must wait to apply for a work permit.
Lawmakers could also expand the authority of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stationed at the border to process asylum-seekers at ports of entry. They could increase legal immigration pathways — the success of which was demonstrated when the Biden administration announced the parole program to allow migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the United States with a U.S. sponsor.
But these solutions require bipartisan cooperation. As Will Freeman, fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, notes, “A border in chaos is good optics for rallying voters against the incumbent party.”
Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.
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