A grassroots campaign amongst Republican voters and political figures pressured GOP Senators to block a provision providing funding for sanctuary cities and states. That provision was contained in the border bill pushed by the left and, originally, by some ostensibly on the right, such as Sen. Mitt Romney. Sen. McConnell eventually changed his mind and encouraged senators not to vote for the bill.
As background, while much of the attention paid to the border bill focused on provisions that many in the GOP found exceptionally objectionable, such as a widened asylum doorway for migrants and limitations on the ability to stop migrants at the border, one hidden provision in it would have appropriated billions of dollars for the government to register, transport, shelter, feed, and disperse migrants throughout 2024.
The GOP Senate contingent managed to block the bill, with Sen. McConnell casting the 41st vote to stop it. The four Republicans who voted in favor of the bill were Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and James Lankford of Oklahoma. Sen. McConnell had pushed Sen. Lankford into the negotiations with Democrats for the border bill.
Speaking to Breitbart News, ALIPAC President William Gheen said, “We fought really hard on this.” He added, “Now we’re going to take the anger and disappointment people have about this attempt to codify Biden’s open borders and channel it into the elections against the Democrats and RINOs who supported this thing.” ALIPAC is a grassroots group that organizes support against those politicians who are in favor of migration.
As the bill would have provided billions in 2024 funding for sanctuary cities to handle the migrants, those cities are now facing a funding catastrophe. Commenting on that, the Policy Director at the Center for Immigration Studies, Jessica Vaughan, said, “It’s a huge problem for the Democrats because the Biden administration was counting on being able to shovel all this money onto the state and local allies.”
Continuing, Vaughn gave an example, saying, “The Governor of Massachusetts is feeling the squeeze in a huge way. She’s having to cut firefighter budgets and take over inner-city recreational complexes and keep paying for all these hotel rooms for this huge number of illegal migrants. Now there is no help on the way. The check is not in the mail.”
The increasing hostility to using government resources on the behalf of migrants can be seen on right and left. For example, ESPN’s Stephen Smith, commenting on the migration issue, said, “How in the hell do we come up with a $53 million pilot program for illegals, but folks who are here legally, or born here, we don’t have enough for them?”
Continuing, Smith then added, “Just like we can come up with billions for Ukraine, but somehow, someway, we can’t fix the homeless problem. I’m down for helping Israel, I’m down for helping address the situations with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, OK. I’m down for helping the Ukrainians fighting off Russia. What about poor and desolate citizens here?”
Watch Smith here:
Featured image credit: Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, and MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber announce a Subway Safety Plan at Fulton Transit Center on Fri., February 18, 2022…(Marc A. Hermann / MTA)
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