Fresh from a fact-finding trip to the southern border, a coalition of New York county executives fired off a letter to President Biden imploring him to do something about the flood of migrants coming to their communities.
“We write to urgently call for action to address the migrant crisis that continues to unfold at the southern border of the United States,” wrote the president of the New York Association of Counties, Daniel P. McCoy, the Albany County executive.
“Our delegation met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents and saw and heard accounts of drug and human smuggling, gaps in physical border barriers, the nightly dangers of the ‘war zone’ of illegal crossings, the unknown number of individuals who escape capture every day and night, the lack of modern technology and equipment, and the Sisyphean efforts of USBP to protect our border communities,” the association wrote.
The group, which includes Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine and Nassau County’s Bruce Blakeman, offered a 10-point plan to deal with the crisis. “It’s well past time for the president to step up and resolve this crisis,” Romaine said. "The number of illegal immigrants he is allowing to come over the border is hard to believe, but the delegation saw it firsthand, and it is appalling.”
The executives implored Biden to “Secure the border by using every emergency power at your disposal.” The situation is “dire,” they said, and the unknown origins and whereabouts of the thousands of migrants that crossed into the U.S. represent a “major national security risk.” They were advised that the illegal crossings they visited were controlled by criminal cartels.
The letter references FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony before Congress that "We are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border," including drug trafficking. "The FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people," Wray said. He also mentioned that “some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we're very concerned about.”
The association also called for legislation to increase border patrol staffing, invest in technology (they still use old black-and-white cameras on the border), increase the number of immigration judges to process cases faster, and locate a specialized unit on the southern border to expedite hearings using retired federal judges, magistrates, law clerks, and former assistant attorney generals. They pleaded for changes to the asylum process and for Biden to resolve the lack of communication and coordination among federal agencies regarding vital information such as background checks and healthcare.
They also asked the president to prioritize putting "badges on the border" rather than behind computers. “Contract agencies can be better utilized for administrative work, both at hardening centers and customs processing centers, to allow USBP to focus on securing the border.”
According to the executives, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the border patrol’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) must allow counties in New York that are experiencing migrant influxes to apply for funding through their programs. “SSP funding would help New York localities provide supportive services, such as housing, to vulnerable migrants,” they wrote.
“It is evident that the current immigration system is failing to effectively deter illegal entry into the United States,” the association of counties letter concluded. “Without consequences for illegal entry, the flow of migrants will not stop. Policies must be implemented to ensure that consequences are enforced consistently and uniformly across both our southern and northern borders.”
The county executives join New York Mayor Eric Adams who also pleaded for federal help in stopping the flow of immigrants into the state. Adams, who has attempted to relocate aliens into suburban communities, estimated that the migrants will cost the city upwards of $12 billion over the next two years and infamously said the migrant crisis will “destroy” the city. The situation is steeped in irony since Progressive politicians such as Adams at first invited the aliens through their sanctuary policies and now are aghast over the ramifications of the massive human surge.