The Rockaway Republican Club strongly opposes the Biden Administration’s open border policy and the flood of illegal immigrants into our nation, our state and our city.  Failure to defend our borders is wrong for New York City and wrong for the United States of America.

Since Day 1, the Biden administration has turned the illegal immigration problem at our southern border into an unprecedented calamity and humanitarian crisis. By not enforcing our laws and by allowing false asylum claims to be a free ticket into America, the federal government is effectively aiding and abetting human trafficking by Mexican cartels. Once across the border, this wave of humanity is overwhelming communities and robbing resources from American citizens in need.

New York City’s shelters are overflowing. Veterans in need have been pushed aside. Thousands of criminals and suspected terrorists have snuck in with the migrant masses. Precious resources already insufficient for Americans are now redirected towards illegal immigrants.  Day workers who are here legally face new competition from migrants who will accept very low cash payments.

History teaches that with unfettered migration comes disease and death.  Yet we have no screening of the illegal migrants crossing our borders by the millions.  The United States is seeing surges of long eradicated diseases like smallpox, polio, measles, mumps, whooping cough, diphtheria, scarlet fever and tuberculosis, Monkeypox, cholera, and scarlet fever cases are on the rise, plus we are seeing an increase in the spread of respiratory illnesses, like RSV, in children.  Cholera infections are on the rise in 28 nations globally including Haiti, Syria and Malawi. Yet, we have people from all nations pouring into our country. Even Congressman Gregory Meeks admits we have been lucky not to have larger outbreaks of disease.

It is past time for Governor Hochul, Mayor Adams and other leaders to find the courage to say, “Enough!” No more exporting the federal government’s border failures into our cities and communities. The federal government must do its job at the border. Our leaders must not allow any more migrant buses to arrive in New York City.

Our Mayor needs a plan.  It is clear he is making decisions day-to-day.  He is on the streets telling NYers he doesn’t have answers and this is our responsibility to fix.  This is a failure of leadership. Even though the Federal Government has no plan, Adams announced NY is a sanctuary city and migrants are welcome here.  It was irresponsible.  Adams made no plan on how many migrants NYC could accommodate, where they were coming from, their health status, their ability to work, etc.  With no national plan, we couldn’t have a local plan and we didn’t.  Instead, we have mass migration, people of unknown health and criminal status with nowhere to go, nowhere to work, and nowhere to live.  They are wholly dependent on the taxpayers of New York, most of whom do not agree with housing them slip-shod in New York’s hotels and open spaces.

One of New York City’s great assets is our thriving tourism industry.  A central facet of that industry is our world class hotels - many of which are unaffordable for most New Yorkers.  These once fine beacons for travelers to our city are now hovels.  Danny Meyer closed two of his restaurants because they are located in hotels given over to migrants.  Our leadership is responsible for this spiraling decline in our City.

The Rockaway Republican Club wants to be absolutely clear: We understand that the vast majority of these migrants are not bad people. Many are desperate to escape difficult life circumstances in countries like Venezuela and El Salvador. The RRC values immigration and its legacy in America, the land of opportunity.