(San Diego) From San Diego to New York, from Washington to Chicago, the migration crisis is testing the patience of Democratic city councilors, now also accusing President Biden of not doing enough for their cities which are reaching a breaking point.
The most striking illustration of the dysfunctions in American reception policy: hundreds of migrants are gathered in southern California, along the imposing wall on the border between the United States and Mexico.
“The reality is that we do not have sufficient funds,” complains to AFP Nora Vargas, elected Democrat from San Diego County, which has more than 3 million inhabitants.
“And as we continue to plan, the number [de migrants] continues to increase,” she declared, asserting that she had to declare “a state of humanitarian crisis” last week.
The issue of immigration has long been a heated topic in the United States, with Republicans and Democrats presenting two radically different visions on how to fix a broken system.
Uncompromising
A record number of arrivals at the southern border — more than 2.2 million in the past 12 months — is testing Democrats’ usual far more conciliatory stance.
And for several months, Texas – bordering Mexico – and its Republican governor Greg Abbott have decided to move the problem, literally. Newly arrived migrants are transported by bus to New York, Chicago, and even Washington, forcing their Democratic mayors to deal with a crisis that until then was focused on border cities.
PHOTO FREDERIC J. BROWN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A U.S. border agent watches migrants from Texas get off a bus in San Diego, California, on October 10.
More than 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York over the past year, and both Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul (both Democrats) have taken a hardline line.
“We don’t have the capacity” to accommodate, Kathy Hochul told CNN last month.
“We are at our limit, if you are going to leave your country, go somewhere else” than New York, she said.
” Abandoned ”
For Eric Adams, there is no doubt about responsibility for the crisis.
“The president and the White House have abandoned this city,” the mayor said in April.
PHOTO JAMIE KELTER DAVIS, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Asylum seekers living in tents outside a police station in Chicago, Illinois, on September 30.
The Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker – although an advisor to Joe Biden’s re-election campaign – did not pull out all the stops either, after the arrival of more than 15,000 migrants in his northern state. country.
“The lack of federal intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois,” he wrote in a letter to the White House.
A little over a year before the presidential election, Joe Biden finds himself in a vulnerable position on this immigration issue, because in addition to Democratic criticisms are of course added the sharp barbs from the opposition. The Republicans are thus keen to portray the president as having transformed the borders of the United States into a sieve.
For Robert Vivar, a missionary from the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, migrants are stuck in a system that is not adapted to the situation and that Democrats and Republicans alike are unable to overhaul.
“The parties cannot agree on immigration reform that meets the dignity required to address not only the needs of migrants seeking protection, but also those of employers here in the United States,” says the Anglican clergyman, who notes the contribution of migrants to the labor market.
The problem, according to elected official Nora Vargas, lies in the distance from central power in Washington.
“Decisions on our border are made more than 5,000 km away,” she says.
“They need to come here themselves, but with an objective mentality to observe what the problems are and find real solutions. »