In 2022, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas started bussing migrants from the Southern Border into states like New York. Initially, this was seen as a Republican publicity stunt highlighting the lack of care sanctuary cities had for illegal immigrants crossing the border. In the year since, Texas has sent several thousands more to New York and other places. What has unraveled shows how unprepared any place in America is for the surge of migrants across the border.

It's not just Republican Governors bussing migrants to these sanctuary cities; migrants themselves are headed to these places. New York has declared an emergency over the flood of 100,000+ migrants freely traveling to New York City. It's gotten so bad for New York over these numbers that the city is attempting to evict migrants from local services meant for the homeless. New York has a policy on the books to shelter anyone who needs it, and they can't do that anymore.

New York City is on the hook for nearly $1.4 billion to cover hotel costs for these migrants and another $12.5 billion to handle all the other related expenses of the migrant crisis. Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement, "As we've said month after month, only more support from our state and federal partners and real policy change in Washington will truly address this crisis."

Millions Cross the Border This Year

And these numbers are a drop in the bucket compared to what is happening at the border. This year alone, we've already seen 2.3 million migrant encounters, with more coming. The astonishing thing is that this surpasses what we witnessed all last year:

The data brings the total migrant encounters for the fiscal year, excluding September, to over 2.2 million migrant encounters. CBP sources told Fox that, with September's numbers so far, encounters for FY 2023 have already surpassed FY 22's record 2.37 million encounters. Sources told Fox News on Friday that, with eight days left to go, there have been 2,388,350 encounters in FY 2023.

Beyond the people flooding across the border, there's a surge in drug and cartel activity. Customs and Border Patrol have 25,000 pounds of fentanyl and many other narcotics. Those same agents report dealing with Mexican cartels using military tactics against the Customs and Border Patrol agents to flood drugs and people across. One source says, "They're better funded than our own Border Patrol agents."

Biden Was Warning: Don't Let Title 42 Lapse

Some parts of this story are astonishing, especially watching records fall. But the fact that we're seeing a surge is not surprising. In May of this year, the Biden administration let Title 42 lapse, a policy from the Trump administration that had curtailed migrant crossings.

I wrote at the time that letting Title 42 lapse would lead to a surge, "A humanitarian crisis was a choice. Encouraging a surge in illegal immigrants at the southern border was a choice. Democrats were given the opportunity to make Title 42 a permanent tool of any White House. They turned it down."

But even Title 42 was a bandaid to a much larger problem. "There's no comprehensive immigration plan here. That's a disservice to Americans and the migrants at the border. The Biden administration has only achieved an increase in human suffering at the border. That's a disaster, even if the Biden administration refuses to say it."

One Party is Out to Lunch on the Border

During the Trump administration, Democrats ran to the border for photo-ops of illegal immigrants held in "cages," put there during the Obama administration. They pretended to care when Trump "put people in cages." That lasted a single summer, and then they suddenly didn't care anymore.

Now, Democrats in sanctuary cities are trying to kick migrants out because it's "a crisis." Of course, it's a crisis! Texas is seeing literal millions of migrants flooding across the border, bringing unrest to border towns and overwhelming local resources. New York has to deal with 100,000, and suddenly, they're brought to their knees.

It's taken Republicans pushing this issue to the literal front doors of the Democratic Party to get them to see the problem. But there's still no sign Democrats are willing to join in on any immigration reform that will stop this flow. Perhaps next, we need to ship these migrants to the front steps of Congress. Maybe that will get these Democrats on board with passing a solution.

Biden remains in total denial. If you listen to the White House, the border is closed, and there's no crisis. In fact, the Biden administration has sent people to cut through razor wire that was keeping migrants out. Meanwhile, New York City sounds awfully similar to a Republican talking in a border state. In truth, Eric Adams is correct. This is a federal government problem: One where the government refuses to step in and offer resources to people trying to clean up a mess created by the President and Congress.

Congress Has the Only Possible Solution

But when Republicans bring this issue up, Democrats rise with complaints about xenophobia and racism. Well, if you look around in sanctuary cities or at stories like Martha's Vineyard shipping out migrants as fast as possible, Democrats are acting pretty xenophobic by their own standards. It turns out the issue isn't xenophobia. It's the utter failure of the federal government to oversee one of the direct issues under its control.

The solution sits in comprehensive immigration reform and bringing order to the border. If you're not willing to secure the borders of the United States, the solution isn't real. It's a humanitarian disaster because these migrants aren't getting the help they need, and it's a security nightmare for the United States. There's not a single point of this story that's functioning right.

Democrats do seem to be aware it's an issue now. But it will take shipping more migrants to their front door to push legislative change. That's a sad state of affairs for the party in control.