As the first busload of migrants from Texas reached New York in the summer of 2022, Mayor Eric Adams announced the city was ready with a helping hand for “every asylum-seeker that comes to New York,” and his administration worked with immigration activists to get the newcomers settled.
Today, Mr. Adams says his city is full. He uses terms like “destroy” for what the migrants are doing to New York. He’s even made a trip to Mexico and Central America, where he begged people to stop coming.
His erstwhile partners in advocacy for migrants, who just last year teamed up with the mayor on “Project Open Arms,” have now opened a verbal war on Mr. Adams. They accuse him of scapegoating the new arrivals and called his trip to Latin America “outrageous.”
Similar scenes have played out in Chicago, where the city’s early promises of welcome have given way to nasty NIMBY neighborhood battles against migrant shelters.
It’s a somber moment for immigrant rights advocates, who also have watched President Biden’s own tilt toward pro-enforcement rhetoric with his decisions this month to restart deportations to Venezuela and to waive 26 environmental and historic preservation laws to speed up border wall construction.
Activist groups now use words like “shameful” and “anti-immigrant” and “inhumane” to describe what they’re seeing from people whom they viewed as partners just months ago.
“The Biden administration needs to stop pandering to right-wing voters by deporting people and building a wall, and should instead do the job they were elected to do: to protect all people regardless of immigration status,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
He called Mr. Adams’ trip to Latin America “outrageous” and said the mayor has mismanaged the more than 100,000 migrants who have landed in the city.
Similar scenes have played out in cities across the country.
Mark Krikorian, executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which backs stricter controls, said the activists shouldn’t be surprised by the reversals from Democratic-led governments.
“What did those activists expect? Did they really think there would be no consequence from the policies they’re supporting?” he said. “I don’t feel for them in any way. They’re getting what they wanted, good and hard.”
Before Mr. Biden, immigrant rights activists seemed to have had all the momentum.
Sanctuary cities were proliferating as communities turned off by the Trump administration’s get-tough approach sought to declare themselves welcoming to all immigrants, including those here illegally.
Polling during the Trump administration found most Americans opposed the idea of a border wall. Gallup, which has been polling on immigration for decades, found all-time high support for increasing the number of immigrants in the U.S. in 2020.
Since then, however,, support for the wall has risen to become the majority position. And the percentage of Americans telling Gallup that they support higher levels of immigration has slid eight points, while those who want to see less immigration rose from 28% in 2020 to 42% this year.
That’s left Democratic officials seeking to calibrate their positions.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month delivered new disappointment to immigration activists when he vetoed a bill that would have expanded a state program offering cash benefits to blind, disabled and elderly immigrants to include those in the country illegally.
The Democratic governor said he appreciated the goal of the bill, but said the $100 million-per-year price tag was too much for the state to bear.
“We know immigrants make California the golden standard bearer it is. We know we deserve better, we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. It’s never easy for us but we will persist until we win,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
However, she praised the governor for signing legislation expanding counseling for illegal immigrant students so they can seek advice on college applications or applying for financial aid.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey signed a budget this summer that gives illegal immigrant students access to taxpayer-funded financial assistance and in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul continues to pardon or commute sentences for illegal immigrants with criminal records. The clemency allows them to battle pending deportations or in some cases, where they’ve already been deported, to ask the government to reopen the case and let them back in.
At the national level, Mr. Biden has sought to assuage some critics by promising to speed up work permits for the million of unauthorized migrants he’s allowed in.
And Homeland Security, just days before restarting deportations to Venezuela, granted a massive deportation amnesty for nearly 500,000 migrants who’d reached the U.S. before the end of July. That will speed up the ability of those Venezuelans to get work permits, which could get them out of state- and city-run shelters faster.
But that move also exposed new rifts.
One illegal immigrant in Chicago said she helped Venezuelans get work at her factory, and now her own hours have been reduced because she doesn’t have a work permit and they do.
“I want my workers’ permit too,” said Maria T. Molina, who was part of an immigration rally in the city earlier this month.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.