Tapper began by noting that "more than 11,000 asylum seekers have passed through New York's shelter system since May, including roughly 2,500 bused to New York from Texas." Adams has said NYC is "nearing its breaking point" and has even talked about bringing in cruise ships as temporary shelters. With that backdrop, Tapper asked what Adams needs from President Biden and the feds, and "how much longer can New York continue" without additional resources.
Adams said it's a humanitarian crisis "created by human hands," and that it's one of those moments where everyone is supposed to "come together and coordinate." That means the federal government, and the governors of Texas and Florida. And, he said,
We should not be really treating other cities and municipalities in the manner that we're witnessing now. And so, we need resources for housing, resources to make sure that we can properly give people the medical care, all of the basic necessities that you would give new arrivals that enter a city.
He also said they're not going to run out of resources; they're "going to follow the law... as well as our moral obligations and responsibilities." He said it's already challenging, and will continue to be so, because NYC is a "right-to-shelter" city. And when Tapper asked about his message for DeSantis and Abbott, Adams talked about them "hiding up" their actions on guns, for example, and on a woman's right to choose.
You see, this is their way of covering up when many people have been really concerned about the erosion of basic human rights. We're seeing crisis calls for coordination. We received a minimum of six buses early this morning, over 11,000 individuals, asylum-seeking migrants, have come to the city already. It is time for us to coordinate this humanitarian crisis that our country is facing.
He disagreed when Tapper said "it seems like you agree this is a crisis that needs more attention from the Biden administration," and said it's something that needs more coordination from the whole country, "at the federal level, the state level, and even city-to-city. Tapper tried again, asking if Biden and the Dems in Congress should make immigration a priority, "using their political capital to finally fix this problem," given it's been since Reagan was in office that we last had major immigration reform legislation.
Adams said one of the most important things we can to is allow migrants to work.
They came here to pursue the American dream. I don't think it really is logical to allow people to be here for months without the ability to seek employment, particularly during a time when we are seeking employees on various sectors in our city.
And, from the other side of the aisle - in fact, from the other side of the country - Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) was on next, with immigration one of the topics. Tapper asked if he agrees with the moves by Abbott and DeSantis. Rounds said they're trying to send a message to the rest of the country "about the plight of those individuals that are coming from south of the border." Pointing to the ridiculously high number of border-crossers under the Biden administration - he said it's "about 3.4 million" (and I'm not fact-checking that) coming to our southern states.
What is a governor supposed to do? They're trying to send a message to the rest of the country that this is not acceptable, and that their states can't handle that type of an inflow.
And it's not just the people - it's the drugs, too. He said his state's Native American reservations "have got huge inflows of drug trafficking coming into our state into some of the heaviest poverty areas of the entire country," and South Dakota's 1200 miles from the border.
So, it's affecting all of our states, but the administration is not doing anything about it.
I wish Tapper had said, "I'll have you back to talk about Native American poverty and drug problems," but he didn't. He did ask if there wasn't a "degree of trolling here" and whether he "really have no issue with using human beings, a one-month-old baby, little kids to make a political point like this?"
Rounds said it needs to be put into perspective, "This is every single day thousands of individuals coming across with babies" to our southern states.
And so, yes, I mean, do any of us like the situation that we're in? Absolutely not. Matter of fact, I would suspect that the individuals in the Southern states that are trying to find a way to get the attention of the administration would love to have other alternatives to them. It's been 606 days since Joe Biden took office, and this problem has done nothing except continue to develop. This is a national problem. And yet these governors on -- along the Southern borders are the ones that are faced with trying to address it.
Tapper suggested what we need is "a comprehensive immigration bill" addressing border security and a pathway to citizenship for all the folks who've been here for decades. And, he said
In the more than 20 years I have been in this town, I have seen people like President George W. Bush and Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Marco Rubio trying to get immigration reform done, working with Democrats. Every time, they were defeated by House Republicans, who wouldn't go along with any sort of compromise. Would you support restarting bipartisan negotiations to try and -- try to finally fix this broken immigration system?
Rounds said discussions "are ongoing" in the Senate, and said the last "hard push" was in 2017, when he and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that got 54 votes. It addressed Dreamers, chain migration, a pathway to citizenship, and that "nothing has happened during this administration."
Tapper didn't interrupt to ask what happened to the 2017 effort, when the Rs had a trifecta: the House, the Senate, and of course, the Trump White House. And he didn't ask what happened to immigration legislation in the next Congress in 2019, when the Rs held a 53-to-45 majority. It would have been interesting to hear Rounds explain why nothing happened.
Instead, Tapper let Rounds continue.
Yes, would we like to step forward again and try and approach again? Absolutely. Do we have to address it? Yes. Do we have to have border security? Before anything else can happen, we have got to be able to defend that border. We have got to be able to make a border that actually works. Otherwise, why should people pay any attention to the laws that we have gotten? What good would it do to reform them if we're not going to enforce them?
Rounds is right, but he would have had a better case if he had expanded upon the "ongoing" discussions, or if he said he and King were back at it with his bill from 2017, or if he had responded in any way at all to Tapper's comment about House Republicans who refuse to compromise.
Blaming the administration is easy, but it would have been a whole lot more powerful if he had a better story to tell.
See you around campus.
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