Temperatures across the United States continue to fall thanks to an arctic blast. Citizens of the country can deal with such freezing temperatures and know how to survive them.
However, the same does not go for migrants, who often come in with just the clothes on their backs. Most of them were transported from the U.S. border to places like New York, Chicago, and Denver. However, according to officials in those cities, their safety is not assured in such extreme weather.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced in the second week of January that he temporarily suspended the city’s 60-day limit on shelter stays. His reason for the suspension is the dangerous subzero wind chills and near-blizzard conditions.
“We’re not evicting new arrivals out into the cold,” Johnson said. Since 2022, Abbott has transported tonnes of asylum seekers to Democratic-led cities in a bid to divide voters. And ultimately damage President Biden’s chances for reelection.
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Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sent a letter to Abbott begging him to stop sending migrants to Chicago in the dead of winter. “We refuse to play your political game of exploiting the most vulnerable for the sake of culture wars and talking points,” the governor wrote.
“You seem to have no interest in working on bipartisan solutions to the border crisis because that would put an end to your cruel political game, but I am writing to you today hoping to appeal to your humanity.”
In Denver, city officials put the 14-day shelter limit for migrant adults on hold due to dangerously cold temperatures. They have also opened supplemental cold weather shelters because the existing ones are almost full.
“We’re getting by day to day at this point,” Denver Human Services spokesperson Jon Ewing told Axios. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston traveled to Washington, D.C., that same week. His purpose was to urge federal leaders to provide more aid for the city to manage the migrant crisis.
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“These are folks that will show up in Denver in shorts and a T-shirt; we’re talking about 5-degree weather here,” Johnston said on CNN. “It is incredibly dangerous, where we will have record low temperatures, but this is a part of the challenge that the country is facing right now — not to have a system where they decide every migrant in the country gets sent.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams says they will not turn down any family that applies to remain in a shelter beyond the city’s current 60-day limit. However, he has also admitted that cities like his need help.
“This is a national problem. The national government needs to resolve this, not New Yorkers,” Adams told ABC News. “We have been humane. We’ve led from the front. But you don’t want a child to have a permanent shelter residency. That is unacceptable, and we’re not going to tolerate that.”
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City and state officials are urging the Biden administration to help with keeping the 68,000 migrants currently in city shelters safe amid the extreme cold. Preferably before the preventable loss of life is sure to come if things don’t change quickly.
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