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In September 2022, a record-high number of migrants were bused into New York City, with at least nine buses reaching the city on a single Sunday. The Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and Florida claimed their operation to transport migrants to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions like NYC is designed to pressure Democratic politicians and the Biden administration to enact tougher border measures that will deter illegal crossings.

For Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who continues to callously ship and demonize migrants, seeing them as mere political pawns they have provided an issue for his likely run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He has chosen charged cultural issues as his political signature, trying to top Donald Trump at his own game while projecting an image that he is free of all of Trumps baggage. He has attacked migrants, transgender people and gays while supporting gun rights, making the death penalty easier to impose as well as tightening abortion as a way of endearing himself with the Floridian and national right-wing base.

Florida might be the place that DeSantis complacently informs us is where woke goes to die, but its also where teachers salaries are among the lowest in the nation, unemployment benefits are extremely low and DeSantis campaigned against a successful ballot initiative to raise the states minimum wage from $8.65 an hour.

Its one more reason for DeSantis to promote the culture wars so the electorate is diverted from the prime aims of his rule: starving programs committed toward bettering the lives of ordinary people so he can maintain low taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Florida also has no income tax for individuals, and its corporate tax rate of 5.5 percent is among the lowest in the nation. One can only hope that DeSantis has overreached politically by promoting an extremely hard-right-wing line on a raft of issues in a state that is not, for the most part, linked to the deep South culturally and socially. DeSantis continues to reach out to the center-right and Orthodox Floridian Jews by signing legislation that will expand Floridas school choice program and visiting Israel to deliver the keynote address at a high-profile event hosted by The Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem.

DeSantis and other governors cynical and repellent actions have had painful consequences for New York City. There are projections that the city alone could spend up to $1 billion this year to adequately support the migrants with food, housing education and employment. Some 200 asylum-seekers arrive in the city every day, and it costs $380 per day per household to provide them with food and shelter, according to City Hall. Most of the migrants, about 34,600 of them, are being put up in taxpayer-funded emergency shelters mostly hotels with thousands more dropped off at eight Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers. Sleeping in the shelters often results in many complaints, especially about children having no access to health care and sometimes coming to school with diarrhea or families experiencing chickenpox outbreaks.

Camille Mackler, executive director of the Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative, one of the many NYC nonprofits that offer legal support, says they are overwhelmed:

Ive been an immigration lawyer for 20 years and Ive never ever gone through what Ive experienced in the last six months or year, Mackler says. Absolutely no one can take cases.

There is no way of avoiding dealing with the oppressiveness of the conditions that the migrants face.

Mayor Eric Adams and others have called the cost for temporary housing, medical care and other support impossible to sustain. In Adams words: While our city may be the face of the asylum seeker crisis, it is not a crisis we can solve on our own. A comprehensive response from all levels of government especially from our state and federal partners is needed. Adams has directly criticized President Joe Biden for failing New York City in dealing with the migrant crisis. He indicated he wants the federal government to grant temporary protected status to asylum-seekers so they can receive work permits because many of the migrants are being exploited and mistreated. Hopefully, the president will want to avoid having a Black Democratic mayor of the countrys largest city be angry with him. In fact, following Adams remarks, a spokesperson for the White House said the federal government would announce additional migrant funding in the coming weeks.

There are no easy answers to the deluge of migrants. No city can carry the burden without an immense amount of aid. At the same time, NYC cannot morally emulate DeSantis and heartlessly pass the problem on to other localities. Its a painful quandary that must be resolved.

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Leonard Quart: In NYC, practical costs and moral stakes of a migrant ... - Berkshire Eagle

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) Rep. Veronica Escobar announced El Paso, Texas, will be getting $12.5 million in emergency food and shelter funds for the migrant crisis.

El Paso is among 35 local government and service organizations listed to get help.

As of Thursday, there are more than 2,000 migrants in south El Paso, in addition to migrants on the U.S. side of the border wall in the Lower Valley.

A statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated this is one component of DHSs multi-agency plan to manage increased encounters at the border and support communities when the Title 42 public health order lifts.

The next round of funding is expected to focus on the needs of interior cities, in addition to border communities.

New York is receiving the significant amount in this and the next round of funding, according to DHS.

El Paso has received $22 million from the federal government, according to Mayor Oscar Leeser. Lesser said the city of El Paso has $15 million available to use.

Link:
$12.5 million in funding coming to El Paso, Texas for migrant crisis - KPIC News

SFAX, Tunisia, May 4 (Reuters) - Bodies of drowned migrants wash up most days on Tunisian beaches, lie unclaimed in hospital corridors and fill morgues, evidence of a surge in people seeking to cross the Mediterranean that has been accelerated by a government crackdown.

Coastguard patrols return to the port of Sfax crammed with migrants stopped at sea in flimsy, overcrowded boats from making the perilous voyage to what they hope will be a better life in Europe.

The number of migrants embarking upon the Mediterranean has risen overall, but the number leaving Tunisia has exploded, with more caught by coastguard patrols than in any previous year, senior National Guard official Houssem Eddine Jebabli said.

The Coastguard told Reuters it has stopped 17,000 people at sea in the first four months of 2023, compared to 3,000 in the same period of 2022.

The numbers spiked after a crackdown on migrants from Sub-Saharan African countries in February that President Kais Saied announced using language the African Union condemned as racialised. Many migrants reported suffering racist attacks.

"Let us go! Your president expelled us but now you are stopping us leaving," shouted a man from the Ivory Coast, who gave his name as Ibrahim, taken aboard a Coastguard ship with his wife and two infant children after they were stopped at sea.

"We were evicted from our home, people threw stones at our house," he said, explaining why they had to leave Tunisia. His comments were echoed by other African migrants Reuters met after their boats were intercepted.

Within minutes of Reuters boarding Coastguard Ship 3505 in Sfax, the captain registered a likely migrant boat on the radar on a course for Italy's Lampedusa island, the main migrant destination.

Over the following hours, Reuters watched the Coastguard stop five boats and track four others it did not have time to chase.

As the crammed boats emerged in the darkness, some with children on board, some migrants begged to be left to continue their voyage. Others tried to resist or evade capture.

On one boat, Reuters saw migrants throwing metal bars at the Coastguard, fighting them with sticks and threatening to throw themselves into the sea. On another, the Coastguard disabled the engine by smashing it with poles.

The tactic of smashing engines has been criticised by migrant rights groups who say some boats have been left rudderless at sea, prey to the waves and in danger of sinking.

Jebabli, the National Guard official, denied imperilling migrants and said Coastguards were increasingly threatened at sea when stopping migrant boats.

Back on the main ship, the captain fired a weapon into the air trying to quell a protest by 200 migrants on board as many angrily demanded to be allowed to go on to Italy.

Some threw confiscated boat engines at the 10 Coastguards on board. Others threatened to set themselves on fire. One man jumped into the sea and was hauled out.

The cost of an illicit voyage is falling as migrants rely less on Tunisian fishing boats and buy their own metal craft made cheaply and meant for only a single journey.

Passage to Italy was previously 5,000 dinars ($1,600) but is now only 1,000 dinars, a police official said, with migrants evenly splitting the cost of the boat and engine.

It costs only 2,000 dinars to make a metal boat that can be sold for 20,000 and ever more people near the coast are doing so, a resident of Sfax's Jebiniana district said, showing Reuters houses that had recently been used for the purpose.

Migrants Reuters interviewed coming off the Coastguard boats said they would try to cross again soon.

But on a stretch of Sfax coastline Reuters saw five bodies that had washed up, one a young boy in jeans and a white T-shirt. The Coastguard recovered four others nearby.

The main city hospital was storing 200 bodies, most outside the small morgue lying stacked in bags on the corridor floors. Patients complain of the terrible smell. "We cannot bear it any more," said a nurse.

Regional health chief Hatem Cherif said authorities would build a new cemetery for migrants. "We bury dozens every day," he said.

Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Tunisia facing unprecedented migration crisis as bodies wash ashore - Reuters

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By Isabel Keane

May 2, 2023 | 9:31am

Sobering photos show hundreds of migrants camped out in the streets of El Paso overnight Monday, as the Texas citys emergency order went into effect in anticipation of the end of Title 42.

The asylum seekers are seen in the images on makeshift beds constructed out of cardboard and sheets, holding their belongings close, as border towns brace for an anticipated flood of migrants once Title 42 is lifted on May 11.

Throngs of migrants were packed tightly on El Paso streets and sidewalks into the early hours, with some taking rest while lying across blankets while others sat perched on the curb.

The asylum seekers photographed in the epicenter of the border crisis appeared to mainly be adults.

El Paso declared a state of emergency starting Monday ahead of the expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era law that allowed the Border Patrol to send migrants from certain countries back to Mexico.

Officials expect to see up to 13,000 people crossing the border each day once the policy is lifted.

Even with a little over a week to spare until the policy ends, more than 73,000 migrants have crossed the southern border illegally in the last 10 days, according to border officials.

Out of those entries, a stunning 16,985 gotaways who were either spotted by agents or caught by motion sensor cameras managed to enter the country and avoid detention.

On Monday, US Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said 22,220 people had been apprehended at all US borders in the span of 72 hours and that another 51,560 migrants were caught during the previous week.

Agents said in the last 10 days they prevented 19 sex offenders, six gang members and one criminal convicted of murder from entering the country at both the northern and southern borders.

Thousands of people eager to gain asylum and start a new life in the US hand themselves over to agents at the southern border each day, but most up until now have been processed and sent back over the border under Title 42.

Officials have warned that the number of migrants at the border will only increase as Title 42 comes to an end.

In El Paso, officials expect anywhere between12,000 and 40,000 migrants who have been waiting on the Mexican sideto cross into the city once Title 42 expires. In preparation for the influx, the city has started building a third intake center for processing migrants.

May 11, they believe, will be the day that they can without any documentation they can come into the United States and to continue to move on, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said Sunday.

Which is really one of the furthest things from whats going to happen, Leeser added.

Were not opening the borders, and the borders are not open today, and they will not be open on May 12.

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Devastating scenes reveal the true nature of the migrant crisis in El Paso - New York Post

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By Carl Campanile

May 7, 2023 | 11:55am

Democrat presidential contender Robert Kennedy Jr. on Sunday slammed President Bidens immigration policy asserting we should have closed borders.

In an interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC 7 The Cats Roundtable, Kennedy defended his view amid a worsening migrant crisis under the Biden administration.

We should have closed borders, and we should expand immigration, Kennedy said.

Its not racist or insensitive to say that we need to close our borders and have an orderly immigration policy. I would expand legal immigration to this country thats orderly, that makes sense for our country, but also that our borders are impervious.

According to Kennedy, children are being victimized by these open-door policies that have helped create a humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border withfentanyl and other drugs flowing across.

We have a crisis, and we need to close our border, Kennedy said.

Biden is sending 1,500 troops to the southern border in anticipation of a surge of migrants when Title 42 expires Thursday, ending the pandemic-era measure that allowed for the rapid expulsion of asylum seekers.

Kennedy blamed the nations decades-long policy in Central and South America countries as contributing to internal strife and poverty. He said the US has been involved in wars in virtually every country in Central America with the exception of Costa Rica, a relatively stable nation compared with its neighbors.

The surge is crushing New York City as well now so overwhelmed with an influx of migrants that Mayor Adams is redirecting some to hotels in Rockland and Orange counties and repurposing city gyms into make-shift shelters.

Kennedy said he also differs with the Democratic incumbent, Kennedy on a more personal level, noting : Mr. Biden is for censorship. Im against it.

The White House, we now know from the Twitter files, has been trying to censor me, ordering, and pressuring the social media platforms to censor me and many many other people, he said. Anybody who dissents from some of [Bidens] policies That is something that is wholly antithetical to the Democratic Party..

Foreign policy marks another issue on which Kennedy and Biden disagree.

I think his policy of expanding the war in Ukraine is misguided and extremely dangerous, he said, asserting Biden wants strong man Vladimir Putin replaced in Russia.

Those are existential threats to Russia that [mean] they simply cannot afford to lose this war, he said. We are in a geo-political proxy war with the Russians that has already killed more than 300,000 Ukrainians [and resulted in] 60% unemployment rate.

In general, Kennedy claimed the projection of US militarypower has been a failed philosophy while China has pushed economic power.

Kennedys campaign comes with its own baggage.

Kennedy Jr. was once best known as an environmental lawyer who worked on issues like clean water. In recent years, however, hes emerged asone of theleading opponents of vaccines a contrarian stance that intensified after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine development to protect against the virus.

The anti-vaccination crusader has been booted off both Instagram and YouTube for spreading false information about the COVID vaccine.

He has also repeatedly referred to Nazis and the Holocaust when speaking about measures taken to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus, like vax and mask mandates.

Some of RFK Jr.s relativesare supporting Bidens re-election.

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Robert Kennedy Jr. says Biden 'should have closed borders' amid immigration 'crisis' - New York Post