Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) on Thursday claimed his state does not have enough room or resources to help its northern neighbor with the immigration crisis unfolding there, despite promising to turn New Jersey into a "sanctuary state."
The comments come after the Biden administration reportedly placed Atlantic City International Airport on a list of 11 federal sites that are under consideration for housing the influx of just over 100,000 immigrants that have flooded into New York City since the spring of 2022.
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“I don’t see any scenario where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or frankly elsewhere in the state,” Murphy told New Jersey 12. “You need scale, enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything that we can afford. Putting everything else aside, I just don’t see it. I would suspect that that will continue to be the case.”
Murphy claimed he has not heard from the White House or federal officials on hosting some of the immigrants but has seen immigrants he believes came from New York in his state already. He noted they could also have come from one of the other cities seeing an influx of immigration, such as Chicago or Washington, D.C.
Local officials also oppose sending the immigrants to Atlantic County, which is one of the poorest counties in the state, despite hosting Atlantic City.
“All I can say is that I will do my best to prevent this from happening,” longtime Republican Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson told Politico. “We can’t afford it. We’re a poor county. We’re one of the poorest counties in New Jersey. It’s not a burden I can put on our taxpayers.”
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Massachusetts has also witnessed a flood of immigrants, with 20,000 being housed by the state in hotels that have been converted into shelters. New York and Massachusetts both have state laws that require them to provide housing for immigrants, but both are facing an unprecedented influx that is overwhelming current housing systems.
Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA) activated 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard on Thursday to help coordinate the needs of the immigrants.