We Have A True Crisis And No One At The Helm

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   Sharlee01posted 22 months ago

   Is anyone going to do anything about this mess? Anyone?
   
   "Chicago's O'Hare Airport used as a migrant shelter as crisis overwhelms city: 'Like a scene from Mad Max'
   Reporter William Kelly says Brandon Johnson has become the 'migrants' mayor'
   
   Chicago leaders are facing backlash over hundreds of migrants being housed at O'Hare International Airport, one of the nation's busiest airports.
   
   Chicago reporter William Kelly joined "Fox & Friends" Thursday to discuss what the city has been experiencing as a result of the influx of migrants.
   
   More than 400 migrants are reportedly being housed in a section of the airport, hidden from public view behind black curtains, up from 31 at the beginning of August.
   
   Kelly said the airport is one of only 18 migrant shelters in Chicago and that homeless Americans are no longer allowed to stay at the airport. The city previously struggled with an influx of homeless people at the airport but initiated a crackdown earlier this year after then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot faced criticism.
   
   "Mayor Johnson campaigned as the people's mayor. Sadly, the people are telling me that he's the migrants' mayor," said Kelly.
   
   Kelly said he does not think the same security and background checks that Americans go through at airports apply to migrants. Meanwhile, the city continues to struggle with crime and to recover from the coronavirus lockdowns. 
   
   "There are millions upon millions of dollars being spent on this migrant crisis. Nobody knows where the money is going, or what it's being spent on."
   
   Kelly said he has been unable to receive answers from the mayor.
   
   "Sadly, Mayor Johnson must have taken Mayor Lightfoot's course at Harvard on media relations, because he won't answer my questions."
   
   "One of the migrant shelters in Chicago is directly across the street from my building on Michigan Avenue. So I look out the window, and it's like a scene from Mad Max every single day.
   
   "It really is a fail on every level, the police are not able to babysit the migrants and arrest the violent criminals at the same time. And so the people of Chicago are suffering."
   
   Vianney Marzullo, a lead volunteer with the Police Station Response Team advocacy group, told the Chicago Sun-Times that O'Hare is supposedly just a holding place for the incoming flights.
   
   According to the Daily Mail, Chicago continues to struggle to house the influx of thousands of migrants into the city. About 14,000 migrants have been transported to Chicago by bus since August.
   
   There are 15 shelters for asylum seekers operating across the city currently with another shelter expected to open next month on the South Side."
   https://www.foxnews.com/media/chicagos- … ne-mad-max
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vWIqZLtkJ0
   
   In Escalation, Adams Says Migrant Crisis ‘Will Destroy New York City’
   In provocative remarks at a town hall meeting, Mayor Eric Adams said that he did not “see an ending” to the migrant crisis and renewed his push for federal help.
   
   NEW YORK TIMES
   
   Mr. Adams repeated the critique on Wednesday.
   
   “We’re getting no support on this national crisis,” he said.
   
   Republican leaders, some of whom have sent buses of migrants to New York, have increasingly used the mayor’s criticism of Mr. Biden as a talking point ahead of the 2024 presidential election. On Tuesday, Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, quoted Mr. Adams in a statement that argued that the “Biden Border Crisis is hurting the country.”
   
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   “Mayor Adams is right,” Mr. McCarthy said. “New York City deserves better.”
   
   Mike Pence, the Republican former vice president, said earlier this week that he wanted to give a “hat tip to the mayor of New York, who’s been willing to call out President Joe Biden and his administration for their absolute failure to secure the southern border.”
   
   The mayor’s remarks on Wednesday provided more ammunition for Republicans, including Representative Nick LaLota of New York who applauded Mr. Adams on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, “for being truthful” about the crisis and urged him to “repeal NYC’s sanctuary policies.”
   
   But it also raised the ire of immigrant advocacy groups and some Democrats who have called the mayor’s rhetoric toward migrants racist, and a dramatic departure for a city where Ellis Island served as a gateway to America for decades.
   
   Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said that the mayor’s comments were dangerous and could lead to violence against immigrants.
   
   “What we’ve seen with the rhetoric he’s using is that it’s activating people in a negative way against their new neighbors,” he said. “The mayor should know better. The contributions of the immigrant community here have been seismic.”
   
   The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said that Mr. Adams’s comments “villainize people who fled unimaginable situations in their home countries,” and that he sounded like “fringe politicians on the far-right of the political spectrum.”
   
   New York City is required to provide shelter to anyone who needs it — a mandate that has presented an enormous challenge for Mr. Adams, who has tried to weaken it through legal and strategic measures. He has sought to appear welcoming to migrants while also raising alarm about the financial impact of hosting them.
   
   Anne Williams-Isom, the city’s deputy mayor for health and human services, said at a news briefing on Wednesday that the right-to-shelter provision was a major reason migrants were choosing to come to the city.
   
   “Before, the right to shelter and what’s going on in New York City was like our little secret,” she said. “Now the whole globe knows that if you go to New York City, we’re going to do what we always do. We have a big heart. We have compassion. We’re going to take care of people.”
   
   White House officials released a statement that defended their response to New York’s crisis, noting the $140 million in new federal funds to the city and state this year, and what they said were constructive conversations with Gov. Hochul on how best to help the state. In the statement, White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández asserted, however, that “only Congress can reform our broken immigration system and provide additional resources to communities across the country.”
   
   One measure of the issue’s divisiveness in the city is the increasing number of protests outside shelters and at the mayor’s Upper East Side residence at Gracie Mansion. The tenor has turned hostile at times, with protesters holding signs that say “Americans over migrants,” chanting “Close the border!” and openly wondering whether the migrants were murderers or rapists.
   
   Migrants who are living in the city said on Thursday that they did not want to be a burden, but that they also did not want to be vilified.
   
   Winder Donald, 53, who is from Nicaragua and has passed through a few different shelters, said he was looking for work and had only found temporary construction jobs.
   
   “I don’t know if we are going to be the ones to blame for ruining the city, but the truth is that I think many of us made a mistake coming to New York because we cannot work here,” Mr. Donald said. “Without work permits, we can’t contribute.”
   
   Mr. Donald said that he had decided to leave New York and that he recently bought a plane ticket to Indiana, where friends from Nicaragua said they had found him a factory job.
   
   Crisbany Rojas, 28, who is from Venezuela, arrived in the city three months ago and lives in a shelter in Long Island City in Queens, where she said she has been treated poorly by workers. She said she believed comments like Mr. Adams’s contributed to that hostility.
   
   “In a certain way, it is true that we are a burden to the city, but we don’t want to be that,” Ms. Rojas said. “We don’t like to be dependent, but we also don’t like to be denigrated.”
   
   The setting for the mayor’s comments — the Upper West Side, a wealthy neighborhood in Manhattan whose residents largely did not vote for him in the 2021 mayoral primary election — seemed deliberately chosen.
   
   Mr. Adams said the neighborhood was home to some of the most highly educated people in the city and asked what they had done to help solve the migrant crisis.
   
   “As you ask me a question about migrants, tell me what role you played,” he said. “How many of you organized to stop what they’re doing to us?”
   
   Then he made one last dark warning before opening the floor to questions from the crowd: “The city we knew, we’re about to lose.”
   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/07/nyre … y-nyc.html
   
   
   Thoughts?   Yes, I realize this thread is not about Trump. However, just wondering if this mess concerns you -- at all.?

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   1. 69

      TheShadowSpecterposted 22 months agoin reply to this

      When I used to fly from coast to coast, I had changed planes in Chicago O'Hare on a number of occasions.  I never liked that airport, because it was always way too busy and the airport employees there were rude.  Even Midway Airport was a nicer airport, and that airport was also in Chicago.  Therefore, I eventually started asking the people who booked my flights to avoid routing me through Chicago O'Hare Airport in the event that I had to change planes on my way to the East or West Coast.  They started routing me through the Houston airport instead, and I found the staff at that airport to be so much more professional and the environment there to be so much friendlier.  If all those immigrants are being housed at Chicago O'Hare Airport, I don't even want to think of how much more chaotic it must be there.

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      1. 83

         Sharlee01posted 22 months agoin reply to this

         I too try to avoid O'Hare when traveling. It is always congested, as well as dirty.   Chicago's status as a sanctuary city dates back to 1985 when former Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order prohibiting city employees from enforcing federal immigration laws.  I can't imagine why migrants are being housed in an airport. If they openly confess to being a sanctuary city, they need to be open to welcoming and housing migrants. No matter the number the President decides to send them.
         
         They need to buck up or take their complaints to Joe. I will share, that I am very happy for these sanctuary cities. I certainly would not want to deal with the problems of being overridden by people who are dependent on my tax dollars to get them situated, their children educated, and their healthcare costs, and housing.
         
         Yeah! For sanctuary cities. Hopefully, the word is out among migrants, that they can bewell taken care of if they head for a sanctuary city.

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2. 83

   Sharlee01posted 22 months ago

   Hopefully, America is watching...
   
   
   Biden administration considering plan to force migrants to remain in Texas: report
   Texas is in the midst of a feud with the administration over the state's migrant bussing program and floating barriers
   https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- … main-texas

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   1. 60

      Willowarborposted 22 months agoin reply to this

      According to the Los Angeles Times report, migrant families would have to undergo a screening process to determine if they can remain in the United States and if their asylum claims can be processed. If they do not pass the initial screening, it would be easier to deport them if they remain close to the border.
      
      If implemented, the plan would mark the latest expansion of a Biden's program known as Family Expedited Removal Management.
      
      In the late 1980s, the Reagan administration  forced thousands of migrants to apply for asylum near where they crossed in south Texas, and receive their decision there as well. Officials were clear at the time that the policy was intended to deter families from crossing. Biden's plan sounds very similar.
      
      Biden supports immigration reform. We haven't had comprehensive immigration legislation in decades. Will anything happen in a divided congress? It does not look like it. Executive orders and targeted measures only go so far. While the Constitution has been interpreted to give the president power over foreign affairs, Congress has the power to make laws determining which immigrants can enter, stay, become citizens of, or must leave the U.S.
      
      In turn, the Constitution requires the president to enforce those immigration laws.
      Yet, decade after decade, members have collectively refused to act.
      It's difficult to take partisan complaints seriously since they are leveled by those who do nothing but sit on their hands.
      
      If members of Congress are truly being honest about their willingness to find a solution and work with colleagues on this issue, then why is nothing getting done? How many more years will it take for Congress to come together and pass comprehensive immigration reform?
      Members of Congress can choose right away to dust off and pass any number of bills that have been previously crafted.
      They can solve the problem instead of just complaining about it. In my view, Republicans would rather keep status quo so that they can campaign on it.
      Immigration is pure politics.

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      1. 83

         Sharlee01posted 22 months agoin reply to this

         Thank you for sharing! I'm genuinely grateful that I don't reside in a densely populated sanctuary city. It's good to see that the word is spreading among migrants, guiding them towards sanctuary cities as ideal settling places.
         
         Looking at the current political landscape, it's evident that the GOP is strategically directing the flow of migrants into Democratic cities in hopes of gaining support in the upcoming election. Unfortunately, it appears that Congress won't be actively addressing this issue, aside from highlighting the challenges at the border as part of Biden's flawed agenda.
         
         It is being reported that Biden has proposed that all illegal immigrants coming in must wait in Texas for their court dates. Not sure if this is doable on Biden's part. I am sure the Texas governor will take this to court.
         I agree, that politics can often take an unsightly turn.

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            wildernessposted 22 months agoin reply to this

            I confess I do not understand the problem.  For years (decades?) these cities and the people there have cried boat loads of crocodile tears about the poor migrants that "only want a better life". 
            
            But now that people "wanting a better life" are on the doorstep of the people crying for them the tears become a distant memory, and NIMBY takes over - "Not in MY Backyard!". 
            
            Sorry, I have no sympathy for them at all.  If they want millions of third world, unskilled people to feed, house, clothe and take care of them let the tearjerkers do it!

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               Willowarborposted 22 months agoin reply to this

               The thing is, we have immigration laws in place. The only way to change current circumstances is to change the laws and that has not been done in decades. The president cannot change the laws.  He is working under the same immigration policies and laws that we have had for decades. If people would like to see things done differently they need to put pressure on their elected representatives as they are the ones who can make or change laws. I would say that Republicans have no incentive to do that as they can politicize the issue to Americans who don't understand immigration laws and their history
               Heck, a good majority of Americans really don't even understand how their own government works.

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               1. 83

                  Sharlee01posted 22 months agoin reply to this

                  "Heck, a good majority of Americans really don't even understand how their own government works."    So ture
                  
                  In my view, it's a common tendency for people to evaluate an administration based on its impact on their lives without delving deeper into the issues. When citizens become dissatisfied, they often become more politically active and may prioritize change over specific candidate qualities, focusing on alternatives to the current administration which they feel has failed them.

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            2. 83

               Sharlee01posted 22 months agoin reply to this

               I agree with your sentiments. I'm grateful not to reside in a sanctuary city. It highlights a challenge often encountered by those with idealistic beliefs; they may sound appealing in discussions but prove impractical when confronted with the realities of the world.  I mean did they not get what they offered up?  One must truely wonder why they are now bellyaching.
               
               The cost will be passed on to taxpayers in the given states, as well as me and you if Old Joe agrees to put toss Federal cash at the problem.
               
               I mean it would seem he will lose lots of votes over his ineptness. alone.

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            Willowarborposted 22 months agoin reply to this

            I would think stats would show us that the majority of migrants do not remain in border towns but head to larger cities seeking greater opportunity anyway. Our largest cities are always most diverse. But Republican governors putting migrants on buses is purely performative politics. It really serves no point. 
            There is a huge misconception by many in this country that with every new president comes a brand new set of immigration laws and policies. We know that's not true. Immigration laws have remained untouched for many many years. Each president comes in and attempts to add a few new rules or executive orders and they are generally met with lawsuits.  It's the American people who need to wake up and maybe open up a civics book to better understand the political landscape before buying into the garbage being turned out by media outlets.
            I think there are probably fundamental differences between what Democrats and Republicans seek in terms of immigration. Many Republicans would probably like to see it severely limited if not closed off completely while Democrats generally seek pathways to citizenship and a humane policy. The fact is that neither side will get any of what they want unless they get together and make changes to the current policy.
            The Reagan administration made  migrants apply for asylum near where they crossed in south Texas, and receive their decision there as well.
            If Biden tries to add this rule, it will be met with lawsuits from immigration groups as well as the state  of Texas.
            
            Ultimately, politicians and media are taking a good portion of our citizens for fools. News reports, videos of migrants crowded into shelters and so on does nothing to help people understand why we have these issues.  There isn't even an attempt to explain immigration policy. Why? an educated population is a lot tougher to fool.  An educated population is quite a danger to a politician.  The idea is to rile up with emotion because they really don't want people to understand the entire picture.  It has to be quickly and easily boiled down to blame this guy or that guy.  The complicated stuff be damned. Just my two cents.
            I also wanted to thank you for your post detailing what you are not happy with in terms of the Biden administration agenda. I couldn't find the exact post again but certainly each issue (which immigration was one) would certainly merit a thread of its own. Good topics for debate.

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            1. 83

               Sharlee01posted 22 months agoin reply to this

               Willow,
               
               I agree, I would think migrants would be more apt to head for a major city due to not only because they get some assurance that they will gain some form of protection under them offering sanctuary. As well as greater opportunities all around., as well as offering more of a melting pot where they can find it easier to blend in.
               
               I believe that, at this point, a significant number of Americans recognize the responsibility of Congress in bringing about reforms to our immigration laws. It's evident that we've been in need of comprehensive immigration legislation for many decades. While presidents can take action through executive orders, their scope is limited, and it's no surprise that most such orders face legal challenges.
               
               "It would be truly great if a greater number of citizens engaged with civic literature, enabling them to better understand the information presented by the media can be skewed.  It is evident that the media exerts a significant influence on a substantial portion of the American population, and I consider this to be a noteworthy phenomenon.
               
               I agree that there are fundamental differences in the goals surrounding immigration between Democrats and Republicans. It is evident that some Republicans lean towards establishing immigration laws with annual limits and a preference for immigrants possessing skills to fulfill job vacancies.  Additionally, there is a prevailing sentiment among some Republicans that momentary border closures may be necessary, particularly in the context of the current situation, as we are a sovereign nation with the right to control our borders and come up with some solutions to the pressing problems. On the other hand, Democrats tend to advocate for pathways to citizenship and humane immigration policies.
               
               However, the present surge of migrants has led me to believe that, in the face of the crisis affecting many of our major cities, we might need temporary border closures. The ongoing influx of migrants could exacerbate these issues, as many believe that major sanctuary cities are becoming overtakes.
               
               It is being reported Biden is considering keeping migrants in Texas while they wait for trial dates. This will only cause more infighting, as well as more likely than not migrants leaving Texas for sanctuary cities.  This form of bandaid is sure to fail.
               
               Regarding the migrants who entered during Reagan's presidency, he extended invitations to migrants with several positive aspirations for those choosing to come to America. His vision was to attract individuals who would contribute to the workforce, embrace our language, appreciate our customs, and share their own cultural heritage. It's worth noting that between 1980 and 1990, a period that encompassed Reagan's eight-year administration, the foreign-born population did indeed grow. In that decade, we witnessed an increase from 14.1 million to 19.8 million. Today, we find ourselves grappling with a significant surge in migrants, which is undeniably causing challenges. Without intervention, it's possible that the situation could worsen.
               
               If President Biden attempts to implement a rule requiring migrants to remain in Texas while awaiting their court dates, it is highly likely that such a move will trigger lawsuits from both immigration advocacy groups and the state of Texas. In my opinion, if President Biden intends to admit a significantly larger number of migrants, they should have the freedom to travel throughout the country and seek employment opportunities. It's evident that the wait for a court date can span many years, and it seems unjust to burden any single state in this manner. Migrants should have the opportunity to relocate to regions where job opportunities are available, along with access to state-sponsored assistance for housing, education, and healthcare. Currently, this support is primarily offered by Democratic-leaning states, while Texas does not extend these benefits to migrants.
               Videos depicting migrants packed into shelters may not necessarily enhance public understanding of the root causes of these issues. Nevertheless, they can serve as a catalyst for Americans to recognize the growing problem at hand and encourage them to turn their attention toward Washington for potential solutions. Ultimately, this underscores the importance of Americans realizing the significance of their voting power, as individual citizens, to make a meaningful impact. Merely expressing frustration and concern without active engagement in the democratic process is unlikely to effectively address our challenges.
               
               It would be beneficial if more people could become better informed about the existing immigration laws. Perhaps it could lead to increased pressure on Congress to fulfill their responsibilities by devising effective changes that would create a more feasible pathway to entry into the United States
               
               I so appreciate you responding to this thread, not many have...  I enjoy our conversations, it is very clear you put a lot of thought into all you share.  I respect this.
               
               Shar

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