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President Biden has a message for city and state leaders around the country who are struggling to provide housing and care for the unending influx of migrants in their communities.
Not my problem.
New York got the message loud and clear from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who responded to criticism that the government wasn’t doing enough to help with the massive humanitarian undertaking by saying, essentially, that New York was dropping the ball, not the feds.
Two letters obtained by Politico were sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams Monday from Mayorkas, who mentioned structural and operational issues found during a week-long assessment of the city’s operations starting on Aug. 7.
“The structural issues include governance and organization of the migrant operations, including issues of authority, structure, personnel, and information flow,” Mayorkas wrote. “The operational issues include the subjects of data collection, planning, case management, communications, and other aspects of day-to-day operations.”
In other words, you may be at the breaking point, but do better.
The letters come after Hochul took to the podium last week saying the crisis “originated with the federal government, and it must be resolved with the federal government.”
It would appear that the Biden Administration takes more of a “you didn’t break it, but you bought it” approach to the border crisis.
To be fair, the problem had been largely relegated to border states like Texas, until Gov. Greg Abbott said “enough” and started busing migrants to other states. But the feds should have been calling the shots from Day One.
It’s a leadership issue, a management issue, a crisis control issue. And Biden keeps passing the buck.
Gov. Maura Healey couldn’t have been too happy with the news out of New York, she too is overseeing a state facing a steady stream of migrants and the constant need to find housing for them.
As the Herald reported, Healey declared a state of emergency earlier this month as local emergency shelters fill up with an ever-increasing number of migrants arriving from other countries and surging housing costs hurt residents already here.
She paired the declaration with an appeal to the federal government for funding and expediting work authorizations for migrants, which she said was a primary driver of the emergency.
Healey met with Mayorkas last week, and said she had a “productive conversation” about the “support Massachusetts needs to address the rapidly rising number of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts, including work authorizations.”
“We look forward to continued partnership to address this emergency and deliver results for Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement after the meeting.
That partnership had better include more money, and not just suggestions for different ways to hold the oars as the state continues to row through this problem.
Will Mayorkas put his money where his mouth is? We can hope, but a better solution is for the Biden Administration to own the problem.
Not just spread it around.
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