Republicans and Democrats alike are blasting the Biden Administration for offering Atlantic City International Airport as a possible place to house NYC migrants.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Atlantic City International Airport is among the sites being considered by the Biden administration to send more than 60,000 migrants who have crossed into the US through the Mexico border in recent months. Republican governors have been shipping those migrants to various cities across the US, including New York, whose mayor had previously called the Big Apple a “sanctuary city” but now whines that he can’t deal with all of the migrants.
Atlantic City International Airport is one of 11 federally owned facilities that the Department of Homeland Security listed as a potential place of possible replacement for the migrants.
Republicans and some Democrats are furious.
“My message to President Biden and NYC Mayor Adams is ‘hell no!’ Atlantic County residents shouldn’t be forced to pay the price for the Biden Administration’s disastrous handling of our border and the outrageous ‘Sanctuary’ state and city policies of Democrats in Washington, New York, Trenton and across the country,” said NJ State Sen. Vince Polistina. “I call on Governor Murphy, and US Senators Booker and Menendez to join me in opposing this attempt to dump unvetted migrants at Atlantic City Airport—and spreading a humanitarian crisis they created to our backyard.”
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small, a Democrat, is also vociferously opposed to the idea.
“We have issues in Atlantic City that are contributing to homelessness and drug addiction, and people near and far are dropping people in Atlantic City and telling them to figure it out,” Small said. “It won’t be tolerated.”
Numerous Republicans chimed in on the matter.
“New Jersey should not be in the business of cleaning up Biden’s humanitarian crisis. Issues like what we are seeing in New York City were created by foolish sanctuary city policies that blatantly ignore the rule of law,” said Sen. Michael Testa. “Without a doubt, Biden’s refusal to secure the southern border has been disastrous for the country and is destroying our cities. His dereliction of duty is now not only threatening our national security, but also the safety of our residents in South Jersey. I’m calling on Governor Murphy to tell Biden that our residents will not assume responsibility for the Biden administration’s refusal to take border security seriously.”
“This is a national security nightmare and a huge public safety concern for all of South Jersey,” said Asm. McClellan. “Biden has unequivocally failed to address and control the overflow of illegal immigrants from the southern border to sanctuary cities. Residents of South Jersey should not have to pay for this administration’s disregard for border security and the lawlessness of sanctuary city policies. Every lawmaker in Trenton must stand against this proposal and do everything in our power to protect Atlantic City. We cannot allow New York’s problems to spill over into our communities.”
“If the Biden administration actually did their job and cared about the thousands of illegal immigrants that are pouring into this country illegally every day then New York City wouldn’t be in this mess,” said Asm. Simonsen. “It is absurd that this president is trying to pass off his administration’s failure to address border security by disregarding the safety of cities that are incredibly smaller than New York City. Sanctuary city leaders talk a big game until the flood of illegal immigrants pours into their cities. Governor Murphy must reject Biden’s proposal and prevent this problem from being left at our doorstep.”