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WSJ What’s News

Chasing the Base: How the Border Surge Changed Immigration Politics

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, News

4.14.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2024

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Illegal immigration across the southern border has long been an issue that animates Republicans, but recent surges have made it a top concern for voters across the political spectrum. More than 100,000 migrants have come to New York City, and thousands of people are living in shelters in neighborhoods around the city while attempting to obtain legal status. The presence of these newcomers made immigration the top issue there in a recent special election for Congress. The winner, Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, won by talking about border security, and his party-mates hope he has cracked the code for parrying GOP attacks on the issue. For the last installment of “Chasing the Base,” WSJ political reporter Jimmy Vielkind travels to Queens and Long Island to speak with officials and voters about how immigration has become an issue in places far from the southern border. Listen to previous episodes of “Chasing the Base” here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:37.0

You can see some big white tents on the Creedmoor campus.

0:42.8

Creedmoor used to be a big psychiatric center

0:47.4

here in eastern Queens.

0:50.9

And for the last several months, the city has used this as a relief center for some of the tens of thousands of migrants who have come here.

1:01.0

Yes, this facility will be able to take care of a little bit over a thousand asylum seekers.

1:06.8

We were at the point where we're having to create new space because we're out of the space we have here.

1:12.2

That's Dr. Ted Long, an executive at New York City's public hospital system.

1:16.0

He was speaking last August when the Creedmoor facility opened after the city's normal network of homeless shelters was overwhelmed. Today there are about 64,000 migrants

1:26.4

in the city's care, including several thousand in three tent cities like Creedmoor. Caring for

1:32.1

them has cost around $4 billion and it's become a top political

1:35.9

issue in New York as migrants are a visible presence around the city.

1:39.6

There's probably two dozen people waiting for a bus.

1:44.0

The center is across the street from a school.

...

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