McConnell on GOP migrant transports: ‘well-to-do blue enclaves’ finally facing border reality

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said Republican governors’ efforts to transport migrants from the southern border to northern Democrat-led cities is showing “well-to-do blue enclaves” the reality of the U.S.-Mexico border crisis.  

“Out of desperation, a few governors along our southern border are now giving some Democrat-run states and cities just a tiny, tiny taste of what border communities have been enduring, literally, for years,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.  

“These well-to-do blue enclaves are finally witnessing the smallest fraction of the challenges that open borders have forced on working-class communities all across our country.”   

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has sent over 10,000 migrants north to Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago.  

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) sent another 1,800 migrants to D.C., and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) joined the effort earlier this month when he sent nearly 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. 

“All those cities combined have had months to accept, between them, approximately one day’s share of our nation’s illegal immigration. But the Democratic mayor of New York City is now declaring that his government’s resources are, quote, at a breaking point. … The self-proclaimed sanctuary city apparently cannot take it,” McConnell said.  

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has requested federal assistance after receiving more than 2,500 migrants since Aug. 5, and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) declared a public emergency this month over the influx of 10,000 migrants since the spring. 

McConnell knocked the concept of “sanctuary cities,” where local authorities typically aren’t required to cooperate with the federal government to enforce federal immigration laws, and argued that governors’ moves to bus and fly migrants to these cities were to illustrate the impact of open border policies. 

The Senate minority leader argued that DeSantis helped “a tiny number” of migrants reach “the wealthy liberal destination of Martha’s Vineyard, filled with millionaire’s mansions,” before the city sent the migrants to a military base. 

The Massachusetts governor’s office said the island was not prepared to provide “sustainable accommodation” and that migrants would be moved as part of “a plan to deliver a comprehensive humanitarian response.”