Cal Thomas: Seeking “sanctuary” in Biden’s America

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 31st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next: the immigration crisis isn’t just at the Southern border anymore. Commentator Cal Thomas explains.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: The wave of migrants illegally crossing America’s southern border and the Biden administration’s refusal to do what is necessary to stop them (as in build the wall), was first defended as a humanitarian effort. Biden’s policies were supposed to help people who were fleeing from dictatorships and violence in their home countries. Most traveled from Mexico, Central America and increasingly South America, but more recently from scores of countries as far away as China and Africa.

Early in Biden’s presidency, American compassion was on display as volunteers went to the border to assist with housing, food, and other needs. Soon the flow became uncontrollable. The Biden administration has erroneously claimed the border is closed and under control, while video shows otherwise. Leaders of “sanctuary cities” like Chicago and New York City are now pleading for federal help as they run out of space and money to care for migrants.

Roughly 100,000 migrants have come to New York’s five boroughs, forcing Mayor Eric Adams to come up with emergency shelters.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), “Despite the happy talk coming out of the Biden administration, claiming that their policies have reduced illegal immigration, the July Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show precisely the opposite.

By every metric, illegal immigration increased last month—at the Southwest border, the Northern border, unaccompanied children, family units and single adults.

In 2022, U.S. Border Patrol reported “98 encounters with people on the U.S. government’s terrorist watchlist along the southwest border.” Those individuals “were stopped by border agents, and did not escape into the U.S.” What if they had escaped?

Schools in some areas are being challenged to come up with space and sufficient foreign language speakers to teach migrant children. The public is beginning to push back as hotels, parks and other facilities have been taken over by the migrants. A rally last Monday on Staten Island drew hundreds of people protesting the decision to turn a shuttered Catholic school into a migrant shelter. Protesters have also shown up at the home of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who once declared New York a sanctuary city where migrants are welcome. Now he and the state are going to spend an estimated $4 billion this coming year housing and feeding “over 57,000 asylum seekers still in [the city’s] care.”

And more are coming.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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