Protesters in New York City loudly demonstrated at a press conference in which New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared to address the migrant surge to the Big Apple, with many repetitively demanding the repatriation of the new arrivals.
New York City, a sanctuary city, has struggled to contend with the arrival of tens of thousands of illegal migrants, some of whom Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbot has bussed there to highlight the Biden administration's lax approach to border enforcement.
More than 110,000 migrants have arrived in the city over the past year. Of those, Texas has only directly sent about 13,000. More than six million migrants have illegally entered the country under the Biden administration. NYC Mayor Eric Adams has largely blamed both the federal government and the Texas governor for the situation and has warned that "[t]his issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City."
Video footage of the presser showed Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow Democrats attempting to address the issue, though protesters largely drowned them out.
"Send them back!" many called in reference to the migrants.