Democrats Slamming Doors on Migrants Rushing the Border

A caravan of 3,000 migrants is heading north toward the United States through Mexico, The Post reported this week — hurrying, they say, because they fear a Trump victory in November could slam the border shut.

Expect more to follow.  

Republicans are making the November election a referendum on the Biden-Harris open border, as Trump and the GOP pledge to “end the invasion,” shut “the floodgates” and restore Remain in Mexico, a program that compelled asylum seekers to stay outside the United States while their cases are heard.

A Venezuelan woman joining the trek north said she hopes Trump loses because
“he wants nothing to do with migrants.”

But Trump’s not alone: Mayors and governors across the nation, stretched to the breaking point by the migrant influx and forcing their constituents to bear the cost, are no longer feeling the love.

Even Democrats are finally starting to put residents first, and saying, “Enough.”   

In stark contrast, New York City’s migrant-advocacy-industrial complex — the lawyers, shelter operators, churches and community organizations that thrive on taxpayer dollars spent on migrants —  is readying the red carpet for a continuing surge, planning even more shelters in the five boroughs. 

That will spell disaster for Gotham’s neighborhoods, but will funnel more money into the burgeoning migrant-care industry.

Meanwhile, Maura Healey, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, announced Tuesday that continuing to shelter migrants is “not sustainable.”  

For months, the Bay State’s Republicans had been pressuring her to face facts about the budget-breaking cost of sheltering migrants in hotels. 

At last, Healy and top Democrats did a 180-degree reversal.

Starting next month, Massachusetts will offer shelter only to state residents who have experienced eviction, flood or fire damage, domestic violence or a medical emergency. 

They will be eligible for up to nine months of taxpayer-funded shelter.

But migrants will get just five days at a temporary respite center. Period. 

That’s common sense. 

Compare that to the lunacy being proposed in New York City — an end to any time limits at all on shelter stays for migrants. 

A group of 65 organizations calling themselves the NY SANE Coalition demanded this month that the City Council outlaw Mayor Adams’ (minimally enforced) migrant-shelter time limits of 30 days for single adults and 60 days for families with children.

Despite the coalition’s name, what they are pressing for is in-SANE — as in nuts.

Eliminating time limits will necessitate opening more shelters. 

New York City’s 193 migrant shelters are already turning Gotham into a third-world city, destroying quality of life wherever a shelter is located.

Queens and the West Side of Manhattan are bearing the brunt — and when residents complain, the Adams administration simply pleads it’s doing its best to spread the shelters “in an equitable way.” 

That’s like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Part of the answer is to overturn the 45-year-old court-imposed “right to shelter” mandate that compels New York City to house all comers, even from around the world. 

Adams needs to show the courage to fight that mandate in court and get it reversed.

Meantime, he should rigorously enforce the shelter time limits he has set. 

The survival of the city’s neighborhoods literally depends on halting the need for more shelters.

This month, Adams said continuing to house tens of thousands of migrants — the tally is now 65,300 — is “not sustainable.” 

Precisely the words Massachusetts Gov. Healy used. 

Only she followed up with action, despite outcry from shelter managers and immigrant interest groups.

To understand why the shelter industry is booming in New York City, follow the money.

The city’s hotel industry — to take just one example — is set to rake in over $1 billion a year by turning its buildings into migrant shelters.

And hotel costs account for only a third or so of the $352 per day per migrant household that the city is spending.

That’s a drain on taxpayers and the city budget — but a boon to the migrant-advocacy-industrial complex. 

When they say “it’s not the money,” it is.

New Yorkers are getting robbed of their quality of life, while the insiders pushing to shelter more migrants for endless amounts of time make out like bandits.

Take a look around the nation to see that it doesn’t have to be this way.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.