Democrats’ ultimate NIMBYism — sanctimonious cities
Hugo Gurdon
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Democrats are squawking because their bluff has been called on illegal immigration. Lori Lightfoot, ousted mayor of Chicago, and Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, wrote recently to Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) to complain about his busing of aliens to their doorsteps from the Mexican border.
“We simply have not more shelters, spaces, or resources,” bleated Lightfoot, adding that it was an attempt to “cause chaos and score political points.” That is true and is well done for being so. Democrats, with their virtue signaling on illegal immigration, led by President Joe Biden making a dog’s breakfast of border security, are causing chaos and trying to score political points against Republicans.
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Adams likewise blasted Abbott as “morally bankrupt and devoid of any concern for the well-being of asylum-seekers.” But how can it be devoid of concern to send the immigrants, most of whom have no plausible claim to asylum, to two jurisdictions, among more than 200 nationwide, that have declared themselves “sanctuary” cities, counties, and states?
If you say you offer sanctuary, you are sending an invitation to people fleeing justice and telling them you will look after them and protect them from their pursuers.
I come from the island of old Jersey in the English Channel — this causes confusion in the United States as I don’t sound like I come from New Jersey — where there is a faded tradition that the 12 parish churches offer sanctuary to fugitives. They also had sanctuary paths from churchyards to the sea, where those evading the law used to arrange for boats to take them to safety if they had the money — or could swim for it if they didn’t.
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Perhaps we should regard the interstate highways as sanctuary paths along which Abbott is busing illegal immigrants to welcoming Samaritans. The human cargo can expect a warm embrace of fellowship from virtuous Democrats.
Or perhaps not. Lightfoot and Adams have made it plain, now that they have been forced to put up or shut up, that their cities are sanctuaries in name only. They are NIMBY Democrats — not in my backyard. Adams even decided to oust arriving immigrants from his metropolis, busing — yes busing — some of them to the suburbs.
The howling hypocrisy of Democrats and the Left when they are handed responsibility for a tiny fraction of the numbers that flood into border states each month is a wonder to see even in a political culture where hypocrisy is the oxygen we breath.
Lightfoot and Adams dress their anger up in the language of concern about migrant welfare, cooperation, and coordination between jurisdictions. Like the Biden administration, their talk is about processing migrants faster, more tenderly, and more effectively into the country, not about how to stop people coming who have no right to be here.
But beneath this carapace of humane virtue are spineless and unprincipled politicians aghast and outraged that they must deal with the consequences of the policies to which they pay lip service, and deeply resentful of executives who expose them and give them a taste of their own medicine.