In a letter addressed to President Joe Biden and the White House , the Democratic mayors of Denver, Chicago, Houston, New York and Los Angeles ask the Government to allocate "additional federal funding" to address the "humanitarian crisis" caused by the illegal immigration that plagues their cities.
The signatories state that their cities are some of the most affected by the arrival of "a large number of asylum seekers" and specifically ask for an additional $5 billion to the $1.4 billion (which has already been granted by the Administration). In addition, they demand " an urgent meeting" with the president since, according to the letter, they need to "be useful partners in identifying solutions":
While we greatly appreciate the proposed additional federal funding, our city budgets and local taxpayers continue to bear the brunt of this ongoing federal crisis. Given the urgency of this issue, we are all willing to travel to DC next week to sit down and discuss our common interest in finding a satisfactory solution.
The mayors - Mike Johnston (Denver), Eric Adams (New York), Karen Bass (Los Angeles), Brandon Johnson (Chicago) and Sylvester Turner (Houston) - call for the creation and implementation of "additional measures" to prevent illegal "they continue arriving in their cities with hardly any coordination, support or resources":
Relying on municipal budgets is not sustainable and has forced us to cut essential city services.
Mayors Letter to Biden Congressional Leadership Oct2023 by Veronica Silveri on Scribd
According to the letter, the expenses destined to maintain illegal immigration in some of the cities are in the millions of dollars. For example:
- Denver: the number of newcomers has multiplied by ten, spending amounts to $2 million per week.
- New York: week after week, between 2,500 and 4,000 illegal immigrants arrive, even cruise ships or their terminals have been converted into shelters, the expense will amount to $ 12,000 million , according to Mayor Adams.
- Chicago: illegals sleep and live in places like the airport or police stations due to lack of shelters ( $320 million ).
"Accelerate the approval of work authorization"
In the letter the mayors ask "expedite work authorization approval and the adjudication for applicants who meet the requirements." They assure that the financing must "include the increase in adjudication times for asylum seekers" and they ask that this be at no cost. That is, "the exemption of fees for applicants".
Johnston - mayor of Denver - is the official who heads the Democratic union and assured that the " federal government stands in the way of employers who want to hire employees who want to work ":
The crisis is that we have people here who desperately want to work. And we have employers here who desperately want to hire them. And we have a federal government that stands in the way of employers who want to hire employees who want to work (...) We believe that there is a path of true common sense here and that is why we thought it was important.
"We believe we have a unique opportunity to work with the White House and Congress over these next few weeks to create an immigration and asylum system that treats newcomers with dignity and be fair and equitable for the cities and neighborhoods throughout the country," concludes the letter, which also names Michael Johnson (speaker of the House of Representatives), Hakeem Jeffries (lDemocratic leader of the House of Representatives), Charles Schumer (Senate Majority Leader) and Mitch McConnell, (Minority Leader in the Senate).
Almost 10 million illegal immigrants since Biden arrived at the White House
The arrival from more than three million illegal immigrants during the 2023 fiscal year, according to official records of the Customs and Border Protection Agency, brought the total number of asylum seekers who have crossed the borders since Joe Biden arrived at the White House to around the 10 million barrier. To the official figures during this period, which add up to more than seven and a half million irregulars, Border Patrol sources and experts point out that we must add almost between 1.6 and 2.5 million additional people who have entered the United States without being intercepted by law enforcement.
We’ve been saying it. Biden just getting warmed up. He destroys everything he looks at.
There is no border. https://t.co/evQ6hgf5iy
— Border Patrol Union - NBPC (@BPUnion) September 30, 2023
