There's been a surge of illegal aliens at the border for nearly three years. During all that time, small Texas border towns like Eagle Pass and El Paso have borne the brunt of the surge that overflows facilities, over-taxes charities, and overwhelms local governments. This has forced migrants to sleep outdoors or depend on the charity of strangers.
It's unacceptable. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pleaded with Joe Biden and Democrats in Washington for assistance. He begged Joe Biden to gain control of the border. It didn't happen. And Texas border towns suffered for months.
Then Abbott decided to share the pain of the massive influx of migrants invited by Joe Biden even before he was elected. As Northern cities bragged how welcoming they were to migrants, Abbott decided to give them a small taste of what Texas towns were feeling.
He began to bus migrants from the border straight into downtown metropolises like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. Abbott was not only trying to relieve the crush of humanity that was smothering Texas border towns, he was also trying to force Joe Biden's hand in doing something about the border by having big-city Democratic mayors put pressure on Biden for him.
Yes, it was a political move. If Abbott had been a Democrat, it's a move that would have been judged a stroke of PR genius by the media. Alas, Abbott is a Republican, and the Democratic mayors didn't like the idea of being forced to beg the president for help.
The city of Chicago is in deep trouble. Abbott has shipped about 14,000 migrants to the Windy City, and 20,000 others made their way to the city from the border. Chicago's Mayor Brandon Johnson is in so far over his head, he's panicking. He blames "right wing extremists" for his inability to deal with the crisis.
"What we've seen is a very raggedy form of right-wing extremism," Johnson said. "Everyone knows that the right-wing extremism in this country has targeted democratically-run cities, and quite frankly, they have been quite intentional about going after democratically-ran [sic] cities that are led by people of color."
"It is abysmal and it is an affront for everything that is good about this country for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened over 400 years ago," Johnson continued. "They're still mad that a black man is free in this country."
Don't forget to attend the rally in your city to reestablish slavery.
Johnson wanted to build a tent city to hold 2,000 migrants on Chicago's west side but that idea was nixed by the state of Illinois. Johnson had chosen a site that was a toxic waste dump and was forced by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to find another spot.
Clearly, Pritzker could see that Johnson wasn't up to the challenge of being Chicago's mayor. So the governor took it upon himself to run point on the PR attack against Greg Abbott.
Pritzker sent a "strongly worded letter" to Abbott telling him to stop sending migrants to Chicago.
"The next few days are a threat to the families and children you are sending here. I am pleading with you to at least pause these transports in order to save lives," Pritzker wrote to his Texas counterpart. "I plead with you for mercy for the thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves. Please, while winter is threatening vulnerable people's lives, suspend your transports and do not send more people to our state."
"You are now sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter — many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow — to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here. Chicago's temperatures this weekend are forecast to drop below zero. Your callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals. Hundreds of children's and families' health and survival are at risk due to your actions," Pritzker wrote.
The migrants are not shoeless, coatless waifs. The temperatures in Chicago are 15 below zero with minus 30 degrees windchill. If what Pritzker said was true, there would be hundreds of cases of frostbite and deaths due to exposure. Most of the migrants had enough money to pay the coyotes to get them to the United States. The idea that more than a handful have no shoes is ludicrous.
Related: The Bogus DHS Claim that Texas Authorities Were Responsible for Three Migrant Deaths
Abbott's response to Pritzker was telling.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris told the newspaper, "Governor Pritzker was all too proud to call Illinois 'the most welcoming state in the nation' until Governor Abbott began transporting migrants to Chicago. Instead of complaining about migrants sent from Texas, where we are also preparing to experience severe winter weather across the state, Governor Pritzker should call on his party leader to finally do his job and secure the border — something he continues refusing to do."
It looks like that may happen. A deal that would go a long way toward slowing the flow of migrants into the United States is near. Whether it passes is another question.
