Mayors From Sanctuary Cities Demand $5 Billion in Taxpayer Funds to Help With Illegal Immigration Crisis

Illegal immigrants climb over the barbed wire fence into the United States from Mexico, in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2023. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)

The Democrat mayors of a handful of sanctuary cities have appealed for $5 billion in federal tax dollars to help them bear the crushing costs associated with the influx of illegal immigrants into their communities.

In a recent letter to President Joe Biden, which was viewed by The Epoch Times, the mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City said that the financial impact of the border crisis on their communities has been immense and that their needs far exceed the $1.4 billion in additional funding proposed by the Biden administration to help them cope.

“Right now, Denver is spending almost $2 million a week on shelter, New York City has surpassed $1.7 billion in spending and Chicago has spent over $320 million,” the joint letter reads. It was signed by the five cities’ mayors: Brandon Johnson of Chicago, Mike Johnston of Denver, Sylvester Turner of Houston, Karen Bass of Los Angeles, and Eric Adams of New York City.

With record numbers of people flowing across the U.S.–Mexico border, shelter space has dwindled in communities hit hard by the influx. There have been reports of illegal immigrants sleeping in police station foyers in Chicago, a cruise ship terminal was turned into a shelter in New York City, and the number of asylum seekers arriving in Denver has increased tenfold, squeezing shelter capacity.

Illegal immigrants walk toward a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint after crossing the U.S.–Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Sept. 28, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“Our cities need additional resources that far exceed the amount proposed in order to properly care for the asylum seekers entering our communities,” the mayors wrote, adding that relying on municipal budgets isn’t enough and that they’ve been forced to cut essential city services to provide for the needs of people who entered the country illegally.

“We request an appropriation of $5 billion to cover the expenditures our cities have already incurred and to continue serving the growing number of people arriving in our communities,” they added.

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The mayors make other demands in their letter, including “dramatically” accelerated work authorization for illegal immigrants so they can find legal jobs once they cross the border.

“Without any path to legal work, we know these new arrivals will have no hope but to end up homeless or reliant on long term public support,” they wrote.

The Democrat leaders also called for a “collaborated federal approach” that would distribute the new arrivals based on “shared available capacity,” which could force nonsanctuary cities—which don’t roll out a welcome mat for illegal immigrants by limiting or denying cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities on matters such as deportation—to take in a share.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches as illegal immigrants walk into the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico, in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Sept. 30, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Deputy White House press secretary Emilie Simons told The Associated Press that the Biden administration is working on some of the issues raised in the mayors’ letter.

“We’re committed to supporting local jurisdictions that are hosting migrants that have recently arrived into the country. We’re going to continue to deliver support every way that we can,” she told the outlet, adding that the administration is working to reduce the time it takes to process illegal immigrants to 30 days.

The border crisis has become a political problem for President Biden, whose border policies, according to Republicans, are lax and have driven record numbers of illegal immigrants into the country.

The Biden administration has responded to the influx by offering incentives—such as work authorizations—to people who apply to come into the country legally.

It has also tightened some rules meant to reduce the number of illegal border crossings, such as announcing in January that the United States would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans crossing the U.S.–Mexico border illegally.

Republicans have said that this is too little, too late.

‘Opening Ourselves Up for a Terrorist Attack’

Roughly 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States since President Biden took office, with about 8 million apprehensions and 1.7 million “gotaways,” or those who evaded capture, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security.

In September, more than 269,000 people were caught crossing the U.S.–Mexico border illegally, a record high for a single month.

“Joe Biden has created this crisis,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said at a press conference this week after he and other Republican senators visited the U.S.–Mexico border and learned from Border Patrol that agents had caught illegal border crossers carrying explosive devices that were “tailor-made for terrorism.”

Mr. Ricketts said that because of what he said were President Biden’s “failed” border policies, there were 18 people on the terrorist watchlist caught entering the United States illegally in September—and 172 last year.

“To put this in perspective, in years past, that number was single digits,” Mr. Ricketts said.

“We’re opening ourselves up for a terrorist attack.”

Mr. Ricketts said that the single biggest thing that the Biden administration could do is restore the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy.

“You would have consequences for coming here illegally, and you would end the waves of people coming here,” he said.

Under the Migrant Protection Protocols, dubbed the “Remain in Mexico” program, asylum-seekers were made to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court hearings. The program was halted by President Biden.

The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment on statements blaming the president for the border crisis.

In a supplemental funding request to Congress on Oct. 20, President Biden asked for roughly $13.6 billion for border protection, including money for hiring an additional 1,300 border patrol agents and 1,600 new asylum officers.