ICYMI: How New York City’s Migrant Crisis Became a Potent Campaign Issue
In case you missed it… the migrant crisis has become a top issue in New York throughout the state, and Republicans are holding Democrats accountable for their abysmal record on immigration.
Read more here and below.
How New York City’s Migrant Crisis Became a Potent Campaign Issue
The New York Times
October 28, 2024
Hundreds of miles from New York City, Republicans desperate to protect a House seat in Central New York aired television ads vilifying Mayor Eric Adams, splicing in images of migrants sleeping on city sidewalks.
In the Hudson Valley, a Republican congressman homed in on New York City during a debate this month, highlighting crimes committed by migrants in Manhattan. And on Long Island, a Democratic hopeful struck a similar note, vowing to secure the southern border because the spillover from New York City had the suburbs “feeling the migrant crisis almost every day.”
Few cities have borne the burden of the migrant crisis like New York, which has received more than 210,000 asylum seekers over the past two years. But the political fallout of the crisis has spilled into competitive House races across the state. Republicans have used New York City to illustrate the disorder that they say has been wrought by Democratic immigration policies, with Democrats responding by adopting a tougher approach to border security.
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In doing so, Mr. Trump typified his party’s strategy of intertwining the migrant influx with two other pressing issues for voters: crime and high living costs.
That tactic has been frequently deployed by Republicans in contested House races in New York that could help decide control of Congress, with New York City a frequent target in debates, stump speeches and attack ads.
Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican locked in a tight race for re-election, said that the arrival of migrants had placed a noticeable strain on his Hudson Valley district, just north of the city, including on schools, food pantries and the housing market.
“It’s a major issue and people recognize it,” Mr. Lawler said in an interview. “Even if the number has come down, both in terms of crossings and in terms of those being housed in a shelter in New York City, the fact still remains that it is costing taxpayers billions of dollars.”
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Fears among New York Democrats that the migrant crisis could hurt them in November date to last year, when public polling at the height of the influx showed that voters disapproved of how President Biden, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mr. Adams — all Democrats — were handling the crisis.
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Indeed, a Siena College poll from July found that 83 percent of voters statewide, including a high share of Democrats, believed that the migrant influx was “very serious” or “somewhat serious.” In August, 64 percent of New Yorkers said they believed the influx had gotten worse over the last year, with a higher share of suburban voters seeing the situation as more dire.
Democrats in contested House races have taken notice. Deviating sharply from how the party once spoke about immigration policy, they now urgently and proactively cast themselves as intent on securing the border. And they have sought to deflect blame onto Republicans for their role in torpedoing a border deal in Congress.
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“With regards to them all of a sudden caring about the border,” said Savannah Viar, a deputy communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, “I think it’s laughable.”
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