BIPARTISAN SUPPORT! The Illegal Migrant Busing Program Wins in the End.
Four months ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis committed a prosecutable offense. At least, that’s what his more hysterical critics snarled as they processed their inchoate frustration with the governor’s shuttling of displaced migrants to the rarified atmosphere of Martha’s Vineyard. His alleged crime pales in comparison to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s, who sent thousands of migrants north from the border towns where they congregate to cities in the Northeast and Midwest. The humanitarian crisis these governors disaggregated exposed them to ill-defined legal consequences, their critics insisted. Well, these Republicans are in good company. Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jarred Polis may soon join them both in the dock.
“We were notified yesterday that the governor of Colorado is now stating that they are going to be sending migrants to places like New York and Chicago,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on Tuesday, making a splash Polis might have hoped to avoid. “This is just unfair for local governments to have to take on this national obligation,” Adams complained, adding that he was only informed of that this effort was underway the night before.
When contacted by Politico, Polis’s administration defended itself. Denver is only assisting asylum seekers in their efforts to reach their final destinations inside the United States, and they’ve been doing so for weeks. It’s a logical and justified response to an influx of migrants, which has overwhelmed public services and forced Colorado’s capital city to declare a state of emergency. Moreover, the program is fully financed by legitimately allocated funds, and professionals are overseeing the needs of the migrants themselves. Polis insisted that it’s “terrible” that “people are being used as political props” by some unnamed scoundrels. By contrast, he insisted, “what we are doing here is just honoring our values by treating people with dignity and respect.”
How Polis’s migrant distribution program differs appreciably from those authored by Abbott and DeSantis is, however, a mystery.
Earlier: Sanctuary Cities Seethe as Illegal Immigrants Actually Arrive.
The surest sign that public policies are simply virtue signals is when the messages don’t cost anything. The easiest way to tell when that signal starts to fail is to watch politicians flounder as the costs start to rise and voters demand relief.
It was free—and meaningless—for progressive churches to post banners calling themselves “nuclear free zones” during the Reagan era. Their dwindling congregations loved it. It was free, after George Floyd‘s murder, to post woke catechism signs on your front lawn, proclaiming “In this house, we believe: Black Lives Matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal” and so on. Maybe the neighbors gave you high-fives. And for years it has been free for deep-blue cities to proclaim themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants. That’s changing now that voters want some sanctuary for themselves.
Changes like this happen when voters realize the old virtue signals actually entail serious costs—and that they will have to pay them. That is exactly what’s happening in New York City and Washington D.C. now that Texas governor Greg Abbott is sending those cities a few busloads of illegal immigrants from his state.
These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott’s buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech.
To paraphrase Sarah Hoyt in October, Adams’ mouth wrote the checks; he should pay for them.