Would these be the illegals Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent to NYC and then the sanctuary city sent off to small Republican towns?
The State Spent Millions to Resettle Asylum Seekers. ICE Is Arresting Them.
K and her husband were eager to settle down after a harrowing migration. They left Colombia for the United States last year with their infant son, reaching the southern border in May 2024. From Texas, they traveled to New York City by bus, ending up in a hotel shelter for newly arrived immigrant families.
That’s when New York state stepped in. The Migrant Relocation Assistance Program, a $32 million initiative launched in 2023, helped the family relocate to Rochester in May. Program funds paid for their move and first year of rent. K was relieved to escape the hotel, where she wasn’t allowed to cook, and the family settled into a routine: Her husband delivered food for DoorDash and Uber Eats, while she took care of their son at home.
Then, one morning in July, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested her husband outside their apartment. The couple, who met as children, were separated for the first time in 14 years.
“I don’t know what to do,” K, who requested anonymity because she fears being targeted by immigration authorities, said in Spanish. Instead of planning her family’s future, she feels frozen as she waits to find out what will happen to her husband. She hasn’t been able to work to make up for the loss of his income, she said: “I don’t know anyone here and I have no one to take care of the baby.”
I do not have a lot of compassion when these illegals make no attempt to learn English. These people are here to take advantage of America, not be a part of America.
The state has spent tens of millions to resettle families like K’s through MRAP. Most participants have work permits and a path to permanent legal status through pending asylum cases. They’ve finally found some stability after getting shuffled from city to city, but it has begun to unravel as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to dismantle the asylum system and expel applicants.
Only about 10% qualify for asylum, historically. Considering the Biden admin didn’t really bother vetting any of them during his time of mass immigration you have to wonder if that percent will drop due to all the criminals let in, all those who are not qualified for asylum.
ICE has detained or deported members of at least 19 current or former MRAP families around Rochester, Buffalo, and Albany since Trump took office, program administrators told New York Focus. That number may be even higher in those cities and around the state, the administrators said.
Some of those arrested have signed voluntary departure paperwork to return to their home countries rather than face additional months or years in detention. Others are still locked up. Two former MRAP families — five children among them — were deported to Colombia from Buffalo, according to administrators and a local immigrant rights advocate.
Which usually means an immigration judge has signed off on deportation, as those involved have been denied asylum.
The arrests highlight the vulnerability of many people who arrived during a wave of immigration under the Biden administration. Blue states like New York launched programs that aimed — however imperfectly — to help new arrivals find housing and jobs. Now, they appear powerless to protect the beneficiaries of those programs.
Is the state also protecting Americans who committed low level, and possibly high level, crimes, or, do they prosecute them and send them to jail?
ICE arrests have left affected MRAP families in limbo, and stoked dread among others, making it harder for them to build stable lives, said Deisi Sandoval, a case manager for 20 MRAP families in Rochester and herself a former beneficiary of the program.
Maybe they shouldn’t have come, eh? 90% won’t be accepted for asylum, so, they shouldn’t get comfortable. It’s fun how Democrats are more concerned with illegals than Americans. Imagine if we booted the at least 21 million illegals – I do not believe the 11 million number. It’s been 11 million since the Bush43 days, even after the millions Biden let in -: how would that affect housing prices? All those domiciles, be it homes or apartments, with them available? How about the almost 1 million on TPS? The 800K refugees? The almost 4 million on work visas?
Read: Bummer: ICE Is Arresting Illegals New York Spent Millions To Resettle »
Local California women’s rights activist Beth Bourne protested the policy allowing transgender students access to girls’ locker rooms by stripping down to a bikini at a local school board meeting.
Climate week just concluded in New York City. Instead of joining the chorus on how the US has withdrawn from the conversation, I thought I might write about something constructive. I have always worried that climate losses will eventually be socialized via greater deficits and eventually via greater taxation. What might an alternative look like? A private sector funded financing vehicle that can transfer risk from victims to a more risk loving investor, in exchange for appropriate returns. That is, something like CAT bonds.
The Energy Department has added “climate change,” “green” and “decarbonization” to its growing “list of words to avoid” at its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, according to an email issued Friday and obtained by POLITICO.
