Peter Lemiska
Illegal aliens are always welcome in sanctuary cities. Right?
By Peter Lemiska
It was only a matter of time. Even President Trump's most bitter critics have to admit that he has a unique ability to express, usually with unvarnished candor, the innermost thoughts and concerns weighing on the minds of middle-class Americans. His recent suggestion to send the masses of illegal immigrants flooding across our borders to sanctuary cities isn't new. As both a practical solution to the problem and poetic justice for the sanctuary cities contributing to it, Trump's idea has undoubtedly been percolating at dinner tables across the country for months.
Now, challenged by Trump to put their money where their mouth is, those sanctuary city politicians are undeterred, as they regurgitate the same platitudes they spouted when they first opened their doors to illegal aliens. Their reaction was utterly predictable. Any other response would have exposed their underlying motives as purely political, their compassion merely contrived. The mayors of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Oakland, for example, defiantly announced they would continue welcoming all illegal immigrants with open arms, even while condemning Trump's suggestion as petty, vindictive, and immoral. In fact, by and large, everyone on the Left is up in arms about the idea. And while they bellow that it's illegal, no one has cited a specific law that makes it so. And none of them ever batted an eye when Barack Obama resettled roughly 50,000 Somali refugees in U.S. cities across the country.
Even as they double down on their open door policy, their frenzied, vitriolic response shows that they're squirming. They understand the impact that a mass influx of unskilled, uneducated migrants would have on their communities – their budgets, their local job market, their social services, and school systems. They know that an unpredictable number of criminals and gang members would be imbedded in those hordes of unvetted migrants.
They also fully understand that the handouts cannot continue indefinitely, and that their constituents will eventually say "enough" – enough of their tax dollars diverted from needy American citizens to Central American citizens who've jumped onboard their own "Me Too" movement.
In 2010, New York state legislators eliminated their Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) for NY graduate students. More recently, they blocked a bill that would have helped Gold Star family members with college tuition. Those are the sons and daughters of service members killed while serving our country. Yet those same legislators recently allocated $27 million to help illegal immigrants with college tuition.
The cynical, calculating politicians like those in the NY legislature have become blinded, not by the compassion they espouse, but by political ideology. They have long ago forgotten they were elected to serve and protect the citizens who put them in office, not the people who have no right to be here.
But in the end, it may not matter whether or not President Trump sends those illegal aliens to sanctuary cities.
According to a Pew Research study, the majority of "unauthorized immigrants" are already concentrated in 20 metropolitan areas. It should come as no surprise that they are all sanctuary cities, like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. And why wouldn't that be the case? Why wouldn't the projected million or more unscreened, illegal aliens who breach our border make their way to places that shield them from deportation, provide them with driver's licenses, welfare benefits, free medical care, and even college tuition?
They migrated two thousand miles to reach America's border, and in short order, they'll migrate to those places that offer them the very same benefits American citizens enjoy – the same benefits legal immigrants work hard for. And as they settle into the warm embrace of one of our many sanctuary cities, all working Americans will share the cost of supporting them. Still, call it poetic justice. Call it karma, but the heftiest burden will fall on those sanctuary communities that invited them to our country.
© Peter Lemiska
April 16, 2019
It was only a matter of time. Even President Trump's most bitter critics have to admit that he has a unique ability to express, usually with unvarnished candor, the innermost thoughts and concerns weighing on the minds of middle-class Americans. His recent suggestion to send the masses of illegal immigrants flooding across our borders to sanctuary cities isn't new. As both a practical solution to the problem and poetic justice for the sanctuary cities contributing to it, Trump's idea has undoubtedly been percolating at dinner tables across the country for months.
Now, challenged by Trump to put their money where their mouth is, those sanctuary city politicians are undeterred, as they regurgitate the same platitudes they spouted when they first opened their doors to illegal aliens. Their reaction was utterly predictable. Any other response would have exposed their underlying motives as purely political, their compassion merely contrived. The mayors of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Oakland, for example, defiantly announced they would continue welcoming all illegal immigrants with open arms, even while condemning Trump's suggestion as petty, vindictive, and immoral. In fact, by and large, everyone on the Left is up in arms about the idea. And while they bellow that it's illegal, no one has cited a specific law that makes it so. And none of them ever batted an eye when Barack Obama resettled roughly 50,000 Somali refugees in U.S. cities across the country.
Even as they double down on their open door policy, their frenzied, vitriolic response shows that they're squirming. They understand the impact that a mass influx of unskilled, uneducated migrants would have on their communities – their budgets, their local job market, their social services, and school systems. They know that an unpredictable number of criminals and gang members would be imbedded in those hordes of unvetted migrants.
They also fully understand that the handouts cannot continue indefinitely, and that their constituents will eventually say "enough" – enough of their tax dollars diverted from needy American citizens to Central American citizens who've jumped onboard their own "Me Too" movement.
In 2010, New York state legislators eliminated their Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) for NY graduate students. More recently, they blocked a bill that would have helped Gold Star family members with college tuition. Those are the sons and daughters of service members killed while serving our country. Yet those same legislators recently allocated $27 million to help illegal immigrants with college tuition.
The cynical, calculating politicians like those in the NY legislature have become blinded, not by the compassion they espouse, but by political ideology. They have long ago forgotten they were elected to serve and protect the citizens who put them in office, not the people who have no right to be here.
But in the end, it may not matter whether or not President Trump sends those illegal aliens to sanctuary cities.
According to a Pew Research study, the majority of "unauthorized immigrants" are already concentrated in 20 metropolitan areas. It should come as no surprise that they are all sanctuary cities, like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. And why wouldn't that be the case? Why wouldn't the projected million or more unscreened, illegal aliens who breach our border make their way to places that shield them from deportation, provide them with driver's licenses, welfare benefits, free medical care, and even college tuition?
They migrated two thousand miles to reach America's border, and in short order, they'll migrate to those places that offer them the very same benefits American citizens enjoy – the same benefits legal immigrants work hard for. And as they settle into the warm embrace of one of our many sanctuary cities, all working Americans will share the cost of supporting them. Still, call it poetic justice. Call it karma, but the heftiest burden will fall on those sanctuary communities that invited them to our country.
© Peter Lemiska
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