People in New York sounded off on Republican governors bussing illegal immigrants across the country, with some calling it a crime against humanity while others criticized left-wing outrage.
"I think that’s a crime," Jackson told Fox News. "They’re in your state, deal with them in your state don’t send them here."
Michael, a New Yorker, disagreed.
"Where else are they doing to go?" he said, noting that he supports bussing migrants.
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Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have sent illegal immigrants to liberal cities, including Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago, as the migrant crisis continues to overwhelm border states. Democrats have criticized the move, with some saying the Republicans were committing crimes against humanity.
"What the Republican governors are doing from Florida and Texas is simply inhumane," one New Yorker, Steve, said.
"I think they are using these people as a political pawn to promote essentially a Republican agenda," he continued. "They’re disregarding the human factors."
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Jackson similarly said: "I think that’s a crime."
"If they don’t have space in Texas, why send them to New York?" he said. "Martha’s Vineyard is a small area, why send them there?"
DeSantis sent two planes full of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas last Wednesday as part of his pledge to drop off illegal immigrants in liberal states. A Texas sheriff launched an investigation to determine whether the migrants were victims of a crime.
But others supported the Republican governors' move.
"Where else are they going to go?" Michael said. "Are they going to send them to rural Arkansas or Alabama that doesn’t have the infrastructure or capital to support them like a major metropolitan area like Manhattan?"
He saw criticism from Democrats as a double standard since the federal government has transported migrants into the interior of the U.S.
"Biden is flying people across the country with taxpayers' dollars but god forbid Ron DeSantis does it," Michael said. "Now he’s getting all those crazy names called at him."
New York Mayor Eric Adams said DeSantis and Abbott's actions were "inhumane" and "anti-American." He accused them of "eroding human rights."
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The number of migrant encounters at the southern border has reached record levels. Migrant arrests during the 2022 fiscal year eclipsed 2 million for the first time, according to Customs and Border Protection. By comparison, there were less than 860,000 apprehensions in 2019.
"How do you control something like that? Its uncontrollable," Giovanni said. "Most of the people, they have no documents, we don’t know who they are."
Michael said he believes immigration will be a key issue for voters in the upcoming midterm elections.
"Not a lot of solutions being proposed," he said of the crisis.
Among key voter issues, the Republican Party holds the highest advantage on border security with 56% of people favoring the GOP, an NBC News survey showed. Of registered voters, 48% said immigration was very important to their vote in the 2022 midterms, an August Pew survey found.
Steve said the immigration issue needed to be fixed through international cooperation.
"It’s an international problem," he said. "It’s not a United States problem."
Jackson told Fox News: "I personally feel for the migrants because I’m an immigrant, but there’s gotta be another way."
