Mayors push for Congress to address the migrant crisis

Mayors across the country struggling to deal with the surge of asylum seekers to their cities are hoping Congress will approve more than a billion dollars to defray the millions in extra expenses they are incurring to feed and shelter migrants.

But the request comes as Congress is dealing with another contentious debate over funding the government to avoid a shutdown on Jan. 19. The highly partisan nature of the border crisis could be an obstacle to both the mayors getting funding and a spending bill being passed.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that it’s been a “very promising few days of negotiations” to address the surge of migrants. But he also said that “of all the difficult issues we face in this chamber, immigration is near the top” and that any deal will “take time.”

Even if the Senate is successful, it is not clear that the deal will include funding for cities. And if it does, it will face opposition from House conservatives unless a border measure includes major changes to immigration that Democrats oppose.

“Hell no,” Austin Livingston, spokesperson and deputy chief of staff for South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman, told Route Fifty when asked if the member of the conservative Freedom Caucus would support sending more than a billion dollars to cities. Livingston said funding should instead be focused on securing the border, adding that Biden’s request “is meant to unsuccessfully mitigate the symptoms instead of actually fixing the crisis he created. It’s like a 600 pound, morbidly obese person buying a pallet of Pepto-Bismol to help stomach his massive feeding binges instead of going on a diet and exercising.”

Conservatives in the House have also said that they will not agree to any deals to avert a government shutdown until Democrats agree to immigration reforms, including barring migrants who traveled through another country from being able to seek asylum unless they first sought refuge there. 

“Shut down the border or shut down the government,” tweeted Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy on Monday.

Congressional leaders over the weekend made progress toward reaching a budget deal by agreeing on the maximum amount the federal government will be spending through the rest of the budget year. Congress will likely need to pass another short-term spending measure, called a continuing resolution, to prevent a partial shutdown in 10 days. The House and Senate still have to agree on the details of how the money will be spent by passing 12 appropriations bills.

A National Conference of State Legislatures update on Tuesday noted that as lawmakers try to resolve their differences “the risk of partial and full government shutdowns increases as deadlines near.”

Mayors Push for Funding

Amid the back-and-forth in Washington, mayors like New York’s Eric Adams are making their case for funding and reforms.

An Adams’ spokesperson said the city has spent $3.1 billion between April 2022 and last November and has opened 216 sites to shelter migrants. The city expects to spend another $12 billion over the next three years unless the federal government addresses the issue. 

In the meantime, New York City is seeking funding by suing bus companies for $708 million in damages for dropping off migrants sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in the city.

Adams also joined Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in calling for more support from the federal government in a joint statement on Dec. 27. Buses chartered by Abbott have been dropping off migrants to all three places. “Cities cannot continue to do the federal government’s job for them,” the three mayors said.

In addition to funding, the mayors hope Congress will take other steps, including changing federal laws that prevent asylum seekers from working for at least six months. The sooner migrants can start working, the sooner they can afford to find places to live without a city’s help.

“We need a real high level of discipline not to turn this into politics,” Adams said at a press conference on Monday. “When you don't allow people to work, when you do not fund a national problem, you're putting people into precarious positions. New Yorkers have done their job. The national government must do its job.”

Big cities aren’t the only ones affected by the surge. Mesa, Arizona, is two hours from the border, but state officials have been sending migrants to Mesa and other cities in the state to help overwhelmed cities closer to the border like Yuma and Tucson. 

“It’s probably hard to find a place that isn't impacted,” said Mesa Mayor John Giles, who is also chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ immigration task force. “It’s just kind of an all hands on deck scenario.”

Mesa has been dealing with this issue for several years, including trying to help local churches care for the migrants. “They said, ‘We need backpacks and many people are showing up without shoes.’” said Giles. “Pastors were pulling out credit cards and trying to make these things happen. And that was just beyond their capacity. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has promised to reimburse some of what the city is spending. “But there's a finite number of dollars that are available for that,” he said. Receiving more federal funding “is very important to us” and other cities.

Is a Budget Deal a Positive Sign?

Meanwhile, many see the deal reached this weekend between House Republican and Senate Democrats on a spending budget as a positive sign that the border debate won’t be an obstacle.

The agreement reached would leave the amount of total spending at roughly the same levels as last year and avoid the deep cuts conservatives have been seeking, including slashing funding for states to build low-income housing by two-thirds and to slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by $4 billion or 39%. The deal would claw back $16 billion in unspent Covid-19 funds, but it would not affect the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds that states and localities have not yet spent. 

Schumer said on Tuesday that Democrats in reaching the deal on the overall amount of spending said, “No, No, No to draconian cuts.” 

But he acknowledged that “certainly there is more work to do” to avoid a shutdown. “If House Republicans bend to the insatiable whims and demands of their hard-right flank, they will be responsible for moving us closer to a shutdown.” 

The Freedom Caucus said in a tweet that its members are “extremely troubled” by the deal and called it “totally unacceptable.”