The local reality of the migrant crisis

The migrant crisis is inevitably coming to Tompkins County. This reality was discussed at the December 5th meeting of the county legislature. As Legislator Rich John put it, “people are going to come here. They haven’t yet. We thought we were going to get inundated. And we haven’t been, and frankly, it’s been a bit of a luxury.”

Word has gotten out globally that the US border is wide open. What is often characterized as a refugee crisis is truly a mass migration in pursuit of economic opportunity. The mass influx of migrants at the border is the work of highly coordinated human smuggling cartels. Discarded identity documents and cartel issued QR code bracelets litter the Mexican side of the border. Every day, people from over a hundred countries turn themselves over to the Border Patrol in places like Eagle Pass, Texas. 

Border Patrol are encountering 10,000+ migrants per day. They are processed and given court dates as far out as 2031 before being released into the United States. Migrants are being provided with plane tickets, bypassing traditional security screening and using their arrest warrants as ID to board flights. New York City is among their top destinations, where more than 200,000 have arrived in the last 18 months.

Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear that the migrant crisis in New York City is untenable, and that no relief for his city is coming from the Biden administration. New York is a sanctuary city, and does not cooperate with federal immigration law. Combined with New York’s Right to Shelter law, the flocking of illegal immigrants to the city is not failed policy, but policy working exactly as intended. As a result, New York has become a focal point of human trafficking and cartel activity.

This exploitation of human life by criminal organizations does not end at the border, but continues in New York’s underground economy of undocumented labor and sex trafficking. Debts are owed, with many finding themselves trapped in what amounts to modern day slavery through debt bondage. A failure to pay can result in harm coming to relatives back home. The migrants themselves have no recourse. 

Ithaca is also a sanctuary city, and only 4 hours away from New York by bus. The same December meeting of the legislature contained a discussion of the City of Ithaca’s recently created sanctioned encampment site, the “Exception Zone.” I have previously pointed out to the legislature the potential for a runaway growth of the population in this area. There is every possibility that come spring, awareness that you can live for free on city land in Ithaca could spread well beyond those currently sheltered under Code Blue. 

Legislator John remarked on potential benefits that could come to the region by embracing the migrant influx as an economic opportunity. I believe this ignores the tremendous, ongoing cost associated with the crisis. It isn’t just the billions of dollars that have been spent. There is also a human cost. In 2022, it was announced that US Border officer suicides were at a 13 year high. Traffickers in overloaded vehicles routinely crash in major accidents where upwards of 10 people are killed. The worst elements of society have been empowered to traffic in human flesh. Leadership from Washington, DC to Albany are complicit in needless death and the breakdown of society itself. As the conversation around this issue progresses, it is incumbent on Republicans to not allow facts to be ignored in place of sentimentality. 

Action is called for. I suggest the county consider sending two sheriff’s deputies to Eagle’s Pass to assist the Maverick County Sheriff’s department in Texas for a few weeks. Then I would listen to them.