MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said rich liberals are botching the migrant crisis in the same way they did with the “defund the police” movement.
Scarborough argued liberals’ handling of the migrant crisis is not progressive for the economically disadvantaged in New York City, as they are the ones suffering from the ongoing migrant crisis. An estimated 100,000 migrants have arrived in NYC and spread to the rest of the state, Politico reported in late August, leading Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams to warn the surging migrant crisis will “destroy” the city.
The city cut budget funding for the New York Police Department (NYPD) and Fire Department of New York (FDNY) to pay for the migrant crisis.
“Progressive for whom?” Scarborough began. “The people who suffer here, not the people on the Upper East Side, not the people in Park Slope. The people who suffer with these budget cuts are the truly disadvantaged in New York City. The people that are suffering the most. It’s just like a couple of years ago when there was that whole defund the police thing. You had people in Manhattan and in Park Slope and in Brooklyn Heights having their little protests, sipping their soy lattes as you say, talking about defunding the police.”
“You weren’t hearing that from places in the high crime areas,” he continued. “What did representatives from those areas say? ‘We need more cops in our schools, we need more cops on the street protecting our children, so when they walk from our place to school, they’re not gonna get attacked 10 times by people selling drugs on the street. We need order in our streets,’ that’s what they were saying. I mean, it must be nice to be rich enough to be woke in New York City. Unfortunately, it’s the truly disadvantaged who suffer time and again, just like with that stupid defund the police idea. They’re the ones that are suffering right now.”
New York City is currently running out of space to shelter the migrants as the city has become overwhelmed with the high influx. Officials have constructed tents intended to house thousands of migrants at a time and have converted hotels and various other places into shelters. (RELATED: Scarborough Says Democrats Are Out Of Touch With Majority Of Americans On Immigration)
Busloads of migrants have been entering NYC under Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing effort that transports illegal migrants to sanctuary cities, such as New York City and Chicago.
In early August, nearly 200 migrants — almost all of them men — slept outside of New York City’s migrant intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel awaiting shelter, according to The New York Times.
NYC has spent $1.5 billion in the last fiscal year to provide housing and other essential needs for the migrants, according to Politico. Chicago voted in May to allocate $51 million to support bused migrants who arrived to the city in large numbers. City officials have placed migrants in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and other public areas to provide shelter for some of the estimated 13,500 migrants who have arrived in the city in 2023, according to Voz Media.