America’s migrant crisis is spreading from the southern border

Major US cities from coast to coast are struggling to accommodate an influx of migrants who initially entered the US via the southern border, then were sent on buses across the country.

🤔 What’s going on?... Nearly a dozen cities – including NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, LA, and Denver – have reported a spike in their legal migrant population since last spring, which is when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) began busing the first of 50,000+ migrants to these self-titled “sanctuary cities” in a campaign to reduce the burden on towns along the southern border.

Initially, Democratic leaders in those cities denounced Gov. Abbott’s actions and vowed to be more welcoming. But some officials have reversed course in recent months, due to their cities’ infrastructure being overwhelmed by too many new arrivals.

• Both NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NY Gov. Kathy Hochul asked the Biden administration to enact stricter border controls and called for migrants to stop entering the US over the past month.
• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker held a call with the White House this month to discuss how the city’s growing migrant population is straining housing and social services.
• Denver this month reduced the amount of time during which migrants can seek temporary shelter due to overcrowding, with the city averaging 300 new migrant arrivals via bus each day since early September.

📸 Big picture: US Border Patrol encountered a record-high ~2.4 million people crossing the southern border in both fiscal years 2022 and 2023, with roughly one-third of those encounters coming from migrants who attempted to enter the US multiple times.

• The overall figure is elevated compared to the previous decade, when Border Patrol recorded less than half-a-million encounters each year with the exception of 2019 (when encounters rose to ~860,000).

📊Flash poll (long-form): In your opinion, how should the US approach immigration?

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