Dear Editor,
In recent months, especially since his performance during the June 27 presidential debate, an increasing number of members from Joe Biden’s party are calling for him to step aside. Simultaneously, in recent weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris has taken to the campaign trail to prove to voters she’s ready to serve if needed.
During her campaign events, Harris speaks primarily about the freedom of women to make decisions about their own bodies, in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in the Dobbs case that repealed the 1973 Roe decision on a constitutional right to abortion. So, what has Harris accomplished as vice president to date?
In March 2021, as her first major assignment as vice president, Joe Biden appointed Harris to lead efforts to resolve the migration surge across the US-Mexico border.
Yet, with each passing day, the federal government has continued to allow more asylum seekers to cross the southern border than is manageable. Despite the federal government’s responsibility to fund immigration and border-related needs, federal funding has been insufficient in meeting the high-volume demands of non-citizen migrants.
This administration’s lack of action has left states and cities to fend for themselves, resulting in local resources being spent on immigration.
In February, under the direction of Mayor Eric Adams, New York City awarded a $53 million contract to a company to create and distribute prepaid cash cards to 500 undocumented immigrant families sheltered at the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan.
Migrants signed affidavits stating that cards would be utilized to purchase only food and baby supplies at designated retailers. This program was intended to save on the costs of previously provided nonperishable food boxes, wherein much of those items went unused and were wasted.
In reality, the debit card program has the potential of giving to each migrant up to $10,000 annually in taxpayer money with no ID check and no fraud control. The allocation of $53 million to this pilot program has resulted in a sharp cut in services (policing, education) to NYC residents.
Massachusetts has over a dozen contracts totaling $116 million to house migrants. Illinois’ proposed spending plan includes $182 million for migrants on top of the $638 million already spent. Undocumented immigrants are a financial burden on local governmental services.
Local governments should be allocating more of their financial resources to struggling citizens. Collectively, states spend billions of dollars to ensure illegal migrants are comfortable, while substantial numbers of veterans who have honorably served our nation are homeless.
The fiscal burden created by the government’s spending billions of dollars each year for various forms of welfare and subsidies, healthcare, and education for undocumented immigrants needs to be adjusted whereby homeless citizens and veterans in crisis are offered new and expanded programs that address their needs for mental health assistance, healthcare, financial aid, and job training.
Peter Wibell, Rutledge