Big city mayors want Federal help after Texas program brings thousands of migrants

Several big-city Democrat mayors met this week asking President Biden's Administration for more resources to deal with the growing migrant crisis this winter. The ask was in part sparked by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, T - Texas, whose "Operation Lone Star" has been busing and flying tens of thousands of people across the country.

Many of the decisions for where new migrants are settled are made by staff at Abbott's Texas Department of Emergency Management. Texas taxpayers have put more than $11 billion towards the border security and migrant movement program over the past few years, nearly the total yearly budgets of Iowa and Wyoming combined.

This week the influx of immigrants North frustrated mayors in Denver, Chicago, and New York.

“We cannot do this alone. We need more support from the Federal government," said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, “All of our cities have reached a point where we are either close to capacity or nearly out of room."

This week, buses arrived in the Chicago suburbs causing local commissioners to pass ordinances regulating them. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said as many as fourteen buses arrived in a single day. On a group press call, they asked the Biden Administration for a nationwide resettlement program for the tens of thousands of people moving across the United States.

“We expect the surge to intensify in the coming days and weeks," said Mayor Adams, "We are calling for a federal declaration of emergency.”

The New York Mayor announced new ordinances citing and possibly impounding buses arriving without 32 hours of warning and arriving outside a four-hour morning window. That caused some backlash in his own city from community groups.

“You don’t want to put anyone in a situation where they have that small window and traveling all this way just staying on a bus because they didn’t make that window," said Power Malu, a community organizer helping to provide services to migrants.

Many of these new immigrants to America have claimed asylum, undergone a security screening, and then been released from detention centers if deemed safe. Immigration officials aim to pair the migrants with a sponsor or family member until an immigration court date arrives. Some people have to wait years before their day in court.

While asking for more Federal help, the cities still have plenty of words for Texas Governor Abbott.

"We also need to make sure the Governor of Texas does not take his animosity out on the rest of the country," said Johnson.

"The sheer hypocrisy of these Democrat mayors knows no bounds. They are now going to extreme lengths to avoid fulfilling their self-declared sanctuary city promises, yet they remain silent as President Biden transports migrants all around the country," said Abbott communications director Renae Eze, pointing to migrant flights the Biden Administration organized in the past.

"Instead of attacking Texas' efforts to provide relief to our overwhelmed border communities, these Democrat mayors should call on their party leader to finally do his job and secure the border - something he continues refusing to do," Eze wrote.

NBC 5 reached out to the Biden Administration to respond to the mayor's request for a national emergency declaration.

"President Biden is committed to addressing this problem, that’s why he submitted a supplemental funding request to Congress which includes additional resources to secure the border with more law enforcement, more grant funding for jurisdictions hosting migrants, and funding to accelerate the processing of work permits for eligible noncitizens," said White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez.

Fernandez Hernandez points to a program helping non-citizens get out of shelters and new work permits through the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) clinic program. Biden's office estimates 10,000 people have used the "one-stop-shop" clinics.

So far the Biden-Harris Administration has issued $1 billion in grants to service providers seeing new migrants. They've asked for an additional $1.4 billion in a budget request to Congress.

Congress is expected to continue negotiations with the White House on new border security funding in exchange for more military support for Ukraine, engaged in a war with Russia.

Shelters in Texas have long been overcrowded according to non-profits NBC 5 spoke with this week.

“The shelters are full. We need to face that. We hear it all over the news," said Isabel Marquez, associate pastor at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas. She's hoping the renewed negotiations over border security funding come with more shelter resources.

Earlier this week U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas met with Mexican President Lopez Obrador on new measures to slow the pace of people coming North. NBC News reports a large caravan estimated at 8,000 people is beginning a long journey in southern Mexico, walking North through the country.

The number of crossings decreased after a ramp-up last week, according to Federal numbers. However, Northern mayors expect migrants by the thousands in the near future.

“We expect the surge to intensify in the coming days and weeks," said Mayor Adams.