Sanctuary cities are crying foul at Texas and Florida, but they have themselves to blame

The Statue of Liberty begs for tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is fine with the sentiment.

Just don’t send any such masses from the southern border and expect the Big Apple to foot the bill. It’s the height of hypocrisy for a sanctuary city serving as one of the largest magnets for illegal immigration in America.

If New York City Mayor Eric Adams is to be believed, the Big Apple “cannot bear the costs of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas alone.”

Adams specifically points to the roughly 33,600 immigrants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bused to the city. Over the last couple of years, governors like Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis have given immigrants passage to sanctuary jurisdictions in an effort to pass along the overwhelming strain of unauthorized immigration into the United States.

According to New York, Abbott’s buses are just the tip of the iceberg.

"Since April 2022, New York City has allocated billions of dollars to provide food, shelter, and more to more than 164,000 asylum seekers. These efforts have had an impact on every service our city provides," said Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack.

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New York is suing for a situation the city set itself up for

The fiscal impact of undocumented immigration is staggering indeed. New York City has filed a $708 million dollar suit under the city’s social services law against the 17 bus companies who transported the immigrants from Texas.

The suit alleges that the bus companies have an obligation to provide for the ongoing care of the immigrants they drop off in New York City.

That works out to more than $21,000 per immigrant.

Put yourself in the shoes of an undocumented immigrant for just a moment. You’ve just given your life savings to a human trafficker to bring you to the United States. New York has publicly advertised that they’ll give you benefits amounting to roughly half the per capita income in the United States if you can just make it there.

If that weren’t enough, New York has a law on the books which prohibits police from honoring detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In short, immigrants reaching New York’s sanctuary have political leaders and police actively working to thwart federal immigration law enforcement.

I can’t imagine any politician having to wrestle undocumented immigrants into paid transportation for California, Chicago, New York, or any other sanctuary jurisdiction.

The impact to the Big Apple is a miniscule part of its population

Until recently, New York was able to wax poetic about its positive treatment of undocumented immigrants without being forced to deal with the burden its blinking neon invitation created for other communities across the United States.

Now, the planes, trains, and buses moving undocumented immigrants from the southwest United States to sanctuary jurisdictions is changing that dynamic.

New York’s population is roughly 8.3 million. Adams is complaining about caring for 164,000 asylum seekers over the course of a little less than two years. The “hardship” for New York is caring for an immigrant population which is roughly 2% of the city’s population.

Through October and November of Fiscal Year 2023, U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector encountered 119,864 immigrants. The population in the Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is about 1.07 million. For the sake of argument, let’s conservatively say 75% of detained immigrants are released into the Tucson area within 72 hours of arrest.

In just two months’ time, Tucson is left to figure out how to care for more than 8% of its MSA population. New York won’t find much sympathy from border states dealing with a far greater proportional influx of illegal immigration since President Joe Biden has taken office.

American cities are dealing with the impact of sanctuary policies which actively encourage illegal immigration. In some instances, politicians are literally inviting illegal behavior.

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Mayor Eric Adams once welcome immigrants with open arms

In 2019, Adams was quite clear on New York City’s immigration position. “Make no mistake, New York City will ALWAYS stand up to @realDonaldTrump and call out his cynical plots to divide our country,” Adams posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “To anyone in the world fleeing hatred and oppression, the ultimate city of immigrants wants you to remember: you’re ALWAYS welcome here.”

New York City Hall Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg labeled Abbott’s bid a plan to “shift the costs of care for needy individuals to New Yorkers and overwhelm our social services system.”

I call it helping undocumented immigrants take New York up on its open invitation. If cities and states refuse to help enforce federal immigration laws, they should bear the economic consequences of that decision. Border cities and states must not shoulder the undocumented immigrant burden alone simply because of their geographic location.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Most immigrants aren’t flooding across the border to settle in Eagle Pass, Texas. They are rational humans who see sanctuary policies and know where they want to be. As it turns out, New York City invited undocumented immigrants with open arms until someone made it easy for them to actually show up.

USA TODAY Network Tennessee Columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney who worked for conservative Republicans. He and his wife Justine are raising three boys in Nolensville, Tennessee. Direct outrage or agreement to smith.david.cameron@gmail.com or @DCameronSmith on X, formerly known as Twitter. Agree or disagree? Send a letter to the editor to letters@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Sanctuary city mayors decry migrant busloads but are paying a price