requires federal intervention, that local

government is being asked to subsidize.

Local government is not designed or built to

handle such a crisis.

Definitely both a humanitarian crisis for

the migrants that are arriving and it is

creating a fiscal crisis for the city.

I don't see an ending to this. This issue will

destroy New York City.

The present migrant crisis is quite unprecedented,

both in scale, in the diversity of the

nationalities that are coming to the border and

the impact it's having not only on the border

states, but in the states and cities inside the

country.

I think it's at this point politically unsustainable

for the Biden administration to maintain

this unlimited flow into what's essentially a

welfare state network of cities like New York and

Denver and Chicago.

So how long can cities withstand the recent surge

of migrants, and what do they need to end the

crisis?

We have to first acknowledge that there is

a crisis, because if you don't acknowledge the

crisis, you can't be in a crisis mode.

We have to be in a crisis mode.

And this crisis is expensive.

In 2018, New York City spent roughly $258 million

to fund its immigration services, adjusted for

inflation. By fiscal year 2023, the city had spent

$1.47 billion servicing those seeking asylum.

The City of Chicago spent over $194 million on its

new arrivals mission since October 2022.

Denver is estimated to have spent between $36.3

million to $39.1 million on migrant support

services in 2023.

The three biggest items for expenses for new

arrivals is housing, education and healthcare,

and they are all three high ticket items.

The idea that we could have a generous system of

welfare benefits from health to education and so

on, and allow the entire world to access those

benefits is just mathematically impossible.

So we're starting to see the math not adding up in

state after state.

The sheer volume of newly arrived migrants is a

major reason behind the city's struggles.

In fiscal year 2022, just over 817,000 new cases

were filed in immigration courts across the U.S.

That number exploded to nearly 1.5 million new

cases the following fiscal year.

The particular background of current migrants also

plays a role.

The secret sauce of migration has worked in

the past is that people would come, and they would

not depend on the city and state for settling

them. They would depend on their social networks.

It seems in this case, many of the people coming

in are coming where there not such in-built

connections. Venezuelans have been the largest

source of nationality of the new migrants.

It is particularly true that they don't have

in-built connections.

There are not Venezuelan communities that have long

standing. So they, therefore, in the absence

of private source of comfort for them, then

they become dependent on the states and the cities.

And the states and the cities have limited

resources.

Although immigration has primarily been an area of

federal oversight, experts say there just

isn't enough federal funding for cities to work

with.

The current level of federal funding provided

to state and local governments is a drop in

the bucket compared to the need.

Congress has provided a very small amount of money

of $800 million for a FEMA program for the

entire country for last fiscal year to provide

assistance to cities in aiding these newcomers.

But cities say this isn't enough.

For instance, the $145 million allocated to New

York City is less than 10% of what the city spent

on migrant services in fiscal year 2023.

This is a whole spectrum of services needed for

people who are new to a place, new to a country,

new to a city, everything from finding warm clothes

for them to finding jobs for them, to finding

shelter for them.

These are complicated issues to manage.

So the city, the state and the federal

government, frankly, was not prepared for it.

Texas is providing charter busses to send these

illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by

the Biden administration to Washington, D.C.

We are sending them to the United States Capitol,

where the Biden administration will be

able to more immediately address the needs of the

people that they are allowing to come across

our border.

So the historians will probably record the

current migrant crisis as the chapter of bussing

migrants. This kind of coordinated, dramatic

bussing of asylum seekers from the border to the

cities inside the countries is completely

unprecedented.

Since the first bus of migrants to Washington,

D.C., Texas reported it has transported over

100,000 migrants to cities such as New

York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and

Los Angeles.

In 2023, illegal immigration is estimated

to have cost Texas taxpayers $13.4 billion.

According to the Texas Newsroom, the state spent

over $148 million bussing migrants to sanctuary

cities. As of January 24, 2024.

The office of the Governor of Texas, Greg

Abbott, did not respond to CNBC's request for an

interview.

The two motives, I think, behind it were one simply

necessity that Texas doesn't have the resources

to cope with 150,000 people a day being

released into the state.

It's a big state. It's a reasonably wealthy state,

but they just simply don't have the schools,

the hospitals, the roads, the housing to cope with

that kind of influx.

The staggering new record more migrants crossed into

the U.S. on Monday than any other day in history.

The current crisis of forced displacement is a

global phenomenon.

There are more people displaced worldwide than

ever before, and one out of every five displaced

people is in the Americas.

But there are also pull factors is that people

have come to realize that if they reach the United

States border and they seek asylum, then they'll

be let in and then their hearing will not happen

for seven years, during which time they are

authorized to work in the United States and they

won't be deported. And that has, I think, become

a very important magnet.

Second of all, it's to make a point that those

cities and states like New York and Los Angeles

and San Francisco that claim that they are

sanctuaries where anyone from anywhere in the world

has the right to go there and live.

Those cities should put up or shut up.

In the strategy reminiscent of former

President Trump's suggestions for managing

undocumented migrants, other southern states,

like Arizona and Florida, have also engaged in the

practice of flying and bussing migrants to

sanctuary cities and states.

Sanctuary cities refer to a community with a policy,

written or unwritten, that discourages law

enforcement from reporting an individual's

immigration status unless it involves a serious

crime.

They want more people in their sanctuary cities.

Well, we'll give them more people.

We can give them a lot. We can give them an

unlimited supply.

And let's see if they're so happy.

They say we have open arms.

They're always saying they have open arms.

Let's see if they have open arms.

The actions of southern states have been

criticized as a political stunt.

I think it's politically motivated.

I mean, it's certainly not coming out of the

goodness of heart or for the concern of the

migrants. I mean, the governor of Texas was

concerned about migrants, which he alleged he was by

bussing them. Then he would have consulted the

mayors and the governors of the places he was

sending them to. And he would have just said,

'Look, this is a new national crisis.

Let's all go together to President Biden and say

this is a national crisis where the federal

government has to take the lead in providing a

solution.' Instead of doing that, he just made

it a political ploy for the cities to feel the

pressure.

It's not just a publicity stunt.

He is, yes, sharing the burden with states that

have said that they can absorb it.

But he's also trying to remove people from his

state that he simply doesn't have the resources

to cope with.

Critics also point out that the lack of

coordination from Texas has made it more difficult

for sanctuary cities to deal with the crisis.

If it happens slowly and organically, it's easier

to deal with when it happens in a spurt.

And I think that's what happened in the case of

the major northeastern cities, where in the new

chapter of bussing, a lot of migrants showed up.

It was unexpected and unplanned for.

Well, what warning does Texas get when 300,000

people cross over every month? I think it's a bit

rich for the mayors of cities up north to say,

well, hang on a minute, can you guys just slow

things down? Give us some more warning.

Let us sort it out.

I think that's a ploy.

I think they should be talking to the White House

because the White House has control over the flow.

Texas doesn't have any control whatsoever.

As pressure continues, cities like Chicago and

New York have begun putting more restrictions

on migrant drop offs to stem the flow in January

2024. Mayor Adams also announced a lawsuit

against charter companies hired by Texas to

transport migrants into the city.

But what cities say they need the most right now is federal

assistance.

I think the federal government was late coming

to this. We should have developed a mechanism for

reimbursing impacted states and cities early

on. Unless we get the reimbursement scheme under

control, I think cities will suffer for a long

time.

Even sanctuary cities that said, 'come one, come all'

are now begging the Biden administration to unloose

the coffers and get them more federal money, which

is why it's become such a big issue in Washington,

because you're asking essentially, Congress that

passed laws that explicitly ban what the

president is doing in terms of catching and

releasing people at the border and his parole

programs. You're asking that same Congress that's

watching the laws that it wrote be flouted to pony

up $20 billion or more, to go to grants for people

crossing the border, to provide services in many

cases that are not provided to American

citizens. So it's become politically contentious.

The Biden administration told CNBC that they were

unable to accommodate an interview with CNBC, but

the Department of Homeland Security said

that it is coordinating with cities and states

across the country to identify ways it can

continue to maximize its support for local

communities while enforcing the law and

returning or removing those without a legal

basis to remain in the country.

Even though the United States is, what, $34

trillion in the hole and growing at over a trillion

a year of deficit?

We do at least print money and we can.

Make more of it. Cities and states, on the other

hand, are not so blessed.