Joe Guzzardi: Bussed migrants prove limits to inviting the world
Emotions are raw; temperatures are heated, and embattled parties are exchanging strong statements. The uproar’s cause: illegal immigrants being sent to sanctuary cities. New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. mayors Eric Adams, Lori Lightfoot, and Muriel Bowser allege that Texas, Florida, and Arizona governors – Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, and Doug Ducey, respectively – are playing politics with migrants’ lives, and that racism motivates their actions. After calling Abbott a racist, Lightfoot openly questioned the Texas governor’s Christian values. Bowser declared that the migrants’ arrival constituted a public emergency and asked the White House to summon the National Guard, an ignored request. Fulfilling a promise he made in April and upping the ante in the immigration debate, DeSantis sent two planes with migrants, mostly Venezuelans, to Martha’s Vineyard, an elitist playground. In the spring, the Florida Department of Transportation received DeSantis’ approval to set aside $12 million to fly the aliens to Martha’s Vineyard and Delaware. Abbott sent two busloads to D.C.’s Naval Observatory, Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence. DeSantis and the other governors counter the mayors’ political grandstanding charges by saying that the financial burden illegal immigrants create should be shared among the states. In the governors’ collective opinions, no destinations are better suited as new homes for aliens than sanctuary cities whose leaders have long avowed their willingness to accept them. Days after the migrants arrived in Chicago – and the total 500 headcount is minuscule compared to the millions that have crossed into Texas – Lightfoot changed her hospitable tone. She shipped the aliens unannounced to suburban Elk Grove Village. Mayor Craig Johnson was as displeased as Adams, Lightfoot, and Bowser with the influx of mostly poor, undereducated, and unskilled into his municipality. Johnson asked: “Why are they coming to Elk Grove?” Johnson’s question is valid. From the moment migrants cross the border, during their resettlement, and indefinitely into the future, taxpayers fund the exorbitant costs. A new financial analysis from the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that to provide for the 1.3 million illegal aliens that Biden has released into the interior and the 1 million estimated gotaways, taxpayers will be assessed $20.4 billion annually, a sum that will be added to the existing $140 billion that’s allotted each year to the existing, long-term illegal alien population. FAIR estimates that each illegal alien costs American taxpayers $9,232 per year and further calculates that the $20.4 billion could provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to more than 7 million additional needy families, fund and expand the entire National School Lunch Program, hire more than 315,000 police officers to combat the nation’s escalating crime wave across the country, and hire 330,000 new teachers, which would end America’s long-standing teacher shortage. The billions of dollars spent on migrants is against a backdrop of unmet needs in American families. A Brandeis University study found that 35 percent of American families, despite working full-time, year-round, do not meet the “basic family needs budget” – the amount needed for rent, food, transportation, medical care, and minimal household expenses. For black and Hispanic families, 50 percent cannot afford life’s fundamentals. The Brandeis survey showed that low-income families with children are struggling; more than two-thirds of full-time workers don’t earn enough to make ends meet. Those families would need to earn about $11 more per hour to fully cover basic costs, or about $23,500 in additional annual earnings. Black and Hispanic families would require a $12 hourly income spike, $26,500 annually, to meet the family budget. Joe Biden campaigned as Scranton Joe, working America’s champion. But as president, Biden has abandoned his commitment to lower- and middle-class families. Instead, Biden has rewarded illegally present foreign nationals with billions of dollars. As a result, Scranton Joe is as unpopular in his hometown as he is nationwide. In Pennsylvania’s 8th District, that includes Scranton, Biden’s approval rating is 38 percent, indicative of his failures. Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
COVID mandates oust cops nationwide, police leaders warn of fallout
COVID-19 vaccine mandates have sparked nationwide controversy and led to firings and resignations around the country. Police officers have been hit hard by the requirements, and their exodus may leave many cities understaffed even on the heels of a spike in violent crime. In New York City, officers passed the mayor’s deadline for vaccination Friday. The city announced that there are 26,000 unvaccinated municipal workers, including 17% of police officers. Those who refuse to comply will be placed on unpaid leave beginning Monday. But New York City is far from the only local government to take that route. Several municipalities have instituted vaccine mandates for police officers only to see a significant drop-off in staffing. Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Seattle police departments have all grappled over this issue as well. In some areas, like Denver, data suggest that many officers who fought the mandate were, in the end, unwilling to resign over it. However, in other areas, police departments around the country have lost many officers due to the mandate. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva grabbed headlines earlier this month after announcing he would not enforce the vaccine mandate on his staff, putting local leaders in a tough position. Last week, he called the mandate an “imminent threat to public safety.” “The Board’s vaccination mandate is causing a mass exodus within the Department, which is an absolutely absurd result,” Villaneuva said. “I have repeatedly stated the dangers to public safety when 20%-30% of my workforce is no longer available to provide service, and those dangers are quickly becoming a reality. We are experiencing an increase in unscheduled retirements, worker compensation claims, employees quitting, and a reduction in qualified applicants. As a result, homicide rates will continue to rise, response times will increase, solve rates will diminish, arrests will decline, patrol services will significantly decline, and patrol stations will close.” In Massachusetts, The State Police Association of Massachusetts (SPAM) lost a legal battle in September challenging the state’s vaccine mandate, forcing many law enforcement officers out. “The State Police are already critically short-staffed and acknowledged this by the unprecedented moves which took troopers from specialty units that investigate homicides, terrorism, computer crimes, arsons, gangs, narcotics, and human trafficking, and returned them to uniformed patrol,” SPAM said in the statement. The Seattle police department lost a few officers and has many more waiting to see if they can receive an exemption to the mandate. “As of midnight, all but six Seattle Police Department employees have submitted their COVID-19 vaccination forms or are involved in an accommodation process, per city mandate,” SPD said in mid-October. “For those six employees, the separation process has begun. Meanwhile, 103 sworn and civilian SPD employees submitted requests for either a medical or religious exemption. While away from work, those employees will be using their own accrued time balances. The decision on when and whether they will be allowed to return to work will be determined in the coming weeks.” Many of the officers leaving departments plan to head to more flexible employers. “To date, dozens of troopers have already submitted their resignation paperwork, some of whom plan to return to other departments offering reasonable alternatives such as mask-wearing and regular testing,” SPAM said. Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has capitalized politically on the issue, publicly calling on ousted officers from around the nation to move to Florida. “NYPD, Minneapolis, Seattle, if you’re not being treated well, we’ll treat you better here: you fill important needs for us, and we’ll compensate you as a result,” DeSantis told Fox News. Mandates combined with growing friction between police and local governments over “defund the police” movements and other anti-police sentiments already had officers on edge. Now, many police groups have pushed back against the vaccine mandates but have failed to sway several of the nation’s larger municipalities. “The mandate-first, last, and only approach for law enforcement belies the public trust imbued on officers to make difficult, sometimes life and death decisions every day,” said Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. “They are asked to quickly assess complex situations, apply their discretion, and act decisively and fairly – to uphold the law and protect the public. The men and women who put their lives on the line for others and take on this immense responsibility are now being told their leaders’ have no faith in their judgment.” Meanwhile, the nation saw a spike in violent crime last year, according to FBI data released in September. Homicides rose nearly 30% in 2020 and aggravated assaults increased by more than 12%. That marked the first time in four years violent crime rose from the previous year. There were roughly 21,500 reported murders in 2020, the highest figure in decades. “In 2020, there were an estimated 1,277,696 violent crimes,” the FBI said. “When compared with the estimates from 2019, the estimated number of robbery offenses fell 9.3 percent, and the estimated volume of rape (revised definition) offenses decreased 12.0 percent. The estimated number of aggravated assault offenses rose 12.1 percent, and the volume of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses increased 29.4 percent.” Last weekend, Chicago saw a 220% increase in downtown shootings, raising more concerns about the need for police. “But don’t worry, [Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot] thinks the best way to solve this serious problem of increased downtown shootings is by stripping and removing cops from the street,” said Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, a local police union chapter. By Casey Harper | The Center Square
Donald Trump deploys more federal agents under ‘law-and-order’ push
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law-and-order” mantle. Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal immigration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the “radical left,” which he blamed for rising violence in some cities, even though criminal justice experts say it defies easy explanation. “In recent weeks there has been a radical movement to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police department,” Trump said at a White House event, blaming the movement for “a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence.” “This bloodshed must end,” he said. “This bloodshed will end.” The decision to dispatch federal agents to American cities is playing out at a hyper-politicized moment when Trump is grasping for a new reelection strategy after the coronavirus upended the economy, dismantling what his campaign had seen as his ticket to a second term. With less than four months until Election Day, Trump has been warning that violence will worsen if his Democratic rival Joe Biden is elected in November and Democrats have a chance to make the police reforms they have endorsed after the killing of George Floyd and nationwide protests demanding racial justice. Crime began surging in some cities like Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia when stay-at-home orders lifted. Criminal justice experts seeking answers have pointed to the unprecedented moment: a pandemic that has killed over 140,000 Americans, historic unemployment, a mass reckoning over race and police brutality, intense stress, and even the weather. Compared with other years, crime in 2020 is down overall. The plan Trump announced Wednesday expands an existing program that sent hundreds of federal agents to Kansas City, Missouri, after a 4-year-old boy’s shooting death to help quell a record rise in violence. Sending federal agents to help localities is not uncommon; Attorney General William Barr announced a similar surge effort in December for seven cities with spiking violence. But this effort will include at least 100 Department of Homeland Security Investigations officers who generally conduct drug trafficking and child exploitation investigations, in addition to personnel under the Justice Department umbrella. DHS officers have already been dispatched to Portland, Oregon, and other localities to protect federal property and monuments as Trump has lambasted efforts by protesters to knock down Confederate statutes. Local authorities there have complained that agents have exacerbated tensions on the streets, while residents have accused the government of violating their constitutional rights. Indeed, civil unrest escalated after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause. Since the racial justice protests began, Trump’s campaign has leaned heavily into a pledge to maintain “law and order” as it has tried to tie Joe Biden to a small group of radicals and anarchists it claims is trying to destabilize America’s cities and rewrite history. The campaign believes the push can help Trump by drumming up support from suburban and older voters who may be rattled by violent images, which have been broadcast often by conservative media outlets. In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had initially blasted the news, said the U.S. attorney’s office will supervise the additional agents joining existing federal law enforcement offices. “If those agents are here to actually work in partnership on support of gun violence and violent cases, plugging into existing infrastructure of federal agents, not trying to play police in our streets, then that’s something different,” she said, while also accusing the president of trying to distract from scrutiny of the federal response to the pandemic. In New Mexico, Democratic elected officials had cautioned Trump against sending in federal agents, with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich calling on Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales to resign for attending the White House event. “Instead of collaborating with the Albuquerque Police Department, the Sheriff is inviting the President’s stormtroopers into Albuquerque,” Heinrich said in a statement. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf drew a distinction between the mission in Portland — to protect federal property — and the surges in Kansas City, Chicago and Albuquerque to help stop violence. Albuquerque and Chicago will be getting millions of dollars for new officers, and the Justice Department will reimburse Chicago $3.5 million for local law enforcement’s work on the federal task force. In Kansas City, the top federal prosecutor said any agents involved in an operation to reduce violent crime in the area will be clearly identifiable when making arrests, unlike what has been seen in Portland. Hundreds of extra agents have been sent. “These agents won’t be patrolling the streets,” U.S. Attorney Timothy Garrison said. “They won’t replace or usurp the authority of local officers.” Operation Legend — named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment last month — was announced July 8. “My one and only child who fought through open heart surgery at four months is gone due to senseless gun violence,” LeGend’s mother, Charon Powell, said at the White House. “Children are supposed to be our future and our son didn’t make it to kindergarten.” This story has been corrected to delete an incorrect reference to more than 200 arrests being made in Kansas City; that figure includes arrests going back to December 2019. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
