WE STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER.

In a post from September 2022, I invoked Byron York, who did.  "Everyone is talking about how to accommodate illegal border crossers once they are in the country and not about how to prevent people from crossing illegally into the U.S."  At the time, we could see what was going to happen, before it blew up in the face of Illinois politicians.

"In other words, the Biden administration may not want migrants showing up in Martha's Vineyard, but there will be plenty of newcomers settling all over the United States, in a never-ending flow."

Indeed there has been a flow.  Calling attention, politely, to what is going on, didn't work, and when Donald Trump rang the warning bell in declaring for the presidency, Our Intellectual Betters threw every relevant -ism and -phobia at him, and attempted to guilt-trip anybody who agreed with him in a similar way.  Does it come as a surprise that people, pushed too far, will push back?

That post also noted,

Sounds nice in theory. Practice is another matter.  Mr Barkan correctly noted that New York mayor Eric Adams "offered a muddled response" (there not being enough Other People's Money, even if the creatives in Central Park West pay even more in taxes); and we saw Chicago's mayor have a temper tantrum when the first busloads from Texas showed up.  (Does that mean none of the Jarrett regency's secret flights went to Chicago?)

Ah, yes, those secret flights.  In Newsweek, Charles Lipson savors the schadenfreude.

These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott's buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech.

These shrill noises are the sound of progressive politicians being squeezed. They proclaim their cities are "sanctuaries" but—surprise, surprise—they don't actually want more illegal immigrants. Not that they can voice that reservation, of course, given their activist political base. Neither can they support serious efforts to manage the underlying problem by closing the border, or even trying to. Doing so would mean a humiliating return to Donald Trump's tough policies: building the wall, requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico as their applications are processed, and encouraging Mexico's armed forces to deploy along the border to prevent illegal crossings. Biden overturned all those policies, to cheers from his party's left-wing base. That was when they thought it would be costless.

Now the costs are mounting, and so are the consequences for progressive politicians. The pushback is coming, not from their base but from disillusioned centrists and independents. Those voters are groaning under the costs associated with this rising tide of illegal immigrants, including welfare benefits, social services, schooling for more children, emergency room visits for uninsured patients, and a need for additional police without sufficient additional tax revenues to pay for all of them. Drug-smuggling cartels now find it much easier to cross the border, so these cities also have to cope with more heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl on the streets, more hospitalizations, and more deaths from overdoses. It's an ugly picture.

That column concludes,

How will we know whether Abbott has opened progressives' eyes to the problem? We won't, until progressive mayors and governors start openly demanding the Biden administration staunch the flow, not at urban bus terminals but at the southern border. So far, they haven't done that. They complain about Governor Abbott, not about President Biden, and are beginning to snipe at Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Vice President Kamala Harris, the "border czar" who denies the crown.

Those two diversity hires are still in office.  And Illinois is still, officially, "the most welcoming state in the Nation."

Governor JB Pritzker today signed HB 121, SB 667, SB 1596 and SB 2665 into law, legislation expanding protections for immigrant and refugee communities and further establishing Illinois as the most welcoming state in the nation. The new laws strengthen the TRUST Act and make Illinois the second state in the nation to require local officials to end partnerships with ICE, address hate crimes against immigrant communities, expand workplace protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and create the Illinois Immigration Impact Task Force to ensure state programs and policies best serve immigrant residents.

Governor Pritzker also signed an executive order creating the Welcoming Illinois Office, to report to the Office of the Governor and the Secretary of the Department of Human Services while being housed and supported by the Department of Human Services. The Office will work to coordinate, develop and implement policies and practices to make Illinois a more welcoming and equitable state for immigrants and refugees. The Office will be led by the Senior Immigration Fellow.

"Throughout my governorship I've directed my administration to adopt policies that make Illinois a welcoming state for immigrants, and I'm proud to sign these accountability measures into law to advance our cause."

Noble though those sentiments are, the Schreechenrauf that joined the Festive Season playlist has been epic.

The potbellied dictator recently sent his colleague, Texas governor Greg Abbott, a letter alternatingly beseeching and insulting.  I had to noodle around some to find the full text in a form easily excerpted from, there is no quick link from the Office of the Governor web page.  You want politeness, let alone transparency from a demagogue with a lot of neurotic relatives?

The ongoing international migration crisis that our nation faces demands a strong, compassionate, and humane response. We agree that our nation needs immigration reform, but instead of advocating for that, you have chosen to sow chaos in an attempt to score political points. You are now sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter — many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow — to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here. Chicago’s temperatures this weekend are forecast to drop below zero. Your callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals. Hundreds of children’s and families’ health and survival are at risk due to your actions.

We refuse to play your political game of exploiting the most vulnerable for the sake of culture wars and talking points. You seem to have no interest in working on bipartisan solutions to the border crisis because that would put an end to your cruel political game, but I am writing to you today hoping to appeal to your humanity. Over the coming days, Illinois will experience a dangerous winter storm and subzero temperatures. I strongly urge you to stop sending people to Illinois in these conditions. You are dropping off asylum seekers without alerting us to their arrivals, at improper locations at all hours of the night. As we grapple with the existing challenges of your ongoing manufactured crisis, the next few days are a threat to the families and children you are sending here. I am pleading with you to at least pause these transports in order to save lives.

As if those expansions of protections from long ago weren't "exploiting the most vulnerable for the sake of culture wars and talking points."  Only when the illegal aliens weren't showing up all over Illinois was that position tenable.  When people who requested transportation to Chicago or perhaps to the Whitewater area from the Jarrett regency, that was fine.  Only when a governor from the other party calls the bluff does it become "a political game."

Victory Girl Deanna Fisher notes the foolishness.  "Governor Pritzker, I believe that IS the point. THIS is what you asked for. Why are you crying about lying on the bed that you made?"

He then continues, with the predictable pleas for bipartisanship.

There is much more that needs to be done by the federal government to provide aid to asylum seekers and to secure the border. I understand that the border crisis is untenable for border states. Illinois, and all other states, especially Texas, ought to lobby Congress immediately to vote for bipartisan immigration reform.

While action is pending at the federal level, I plead with you for mercy for the thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves. Please, while winter is threatening vulnerable people’s lives, suspend your transports and do not send more people to our state. We are asking you to help prevent additional deaths. We should be able to come together in a bipartisan fashion to urge Congress to act. But right now, we are talking about human beings and their survival. I hope we can at least agree on saving lives right now.

The border is not secure, and attempts by Congressional leadership to act on securing the border are rebuffed with deflections that Ukraine, or perhaps Palestine (the one on the Mediterranean, not to be confused with the one in Texas or East Palestine in Ohio) come first.  So many messes, so important it is that we have another omnibus bill.

Good grief.  I have ideas about what a reform looks like.

Yes, any supposedly one-time policy change brings a time consistency problem in train.  Yes, the current process is disorder.  Simplify. Work permits now. Student visas now.  Citizenship petitions in five years.  Immigration lawyers and pundits benefit by the current system; employers, whether of graduate assistants, farm implement operators, professors, or bowl balancers, get jacked around.

I'll toss that idea out, with the understanding that the most likely outcome is that it will not come to pass.  But if I don't toss it out, it's not out there for people to ponder.

Meanwhile, Governor Abbot will not be guilt-tripped.

Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris told the newspaper, "Governor Pritzker was all too proud to call Illinois 'the most welcoming state in the nation' until Governor Abbott began transporting migrants to Chicago. Instead of complaining about migrants sent from Texas, where we are also preparing to experience severe winter weather across the state, Governor Pritzker should call on his party leader to finally do his job and secure the border — something he continues refusing to do.

/span>"Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue transporting migrants to sanctuary cities to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis."

Lest anyone suspect Texas authorities of spinning "sanctuary," please note, above, that the laws and executive orders go far beyond not asking any questions on routine traffic stops or when an illegal alien calls 9-1-1 or the building inspector when the heat is off.

Illinois's problem, notes Red State's Karen Townsend, begins with the governor being nyekuturny.  "Pritzker needs to brush up on his skills. This doesn’t exactly sound like he’s trying to be a civil human being while making demands of Abbott. He needs a little Dale Carnegie in his life."  I remind you, the Pritzker family is a nest of neurotics.  And he can't take on Washington and keep his chances at pinch-hitting for Dementia Joe alive.

Pritzker should take it up with Biden. The Pritzker family are top donors to the Democrat Party, and they are a family of billionaires. They founded Hyatt Hotels. The governor’s sister, Penny Pritzker, was the secretary of commerce in the Obama administration. She is Biden’s U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery. The governor surely can pick up the phone and speak with his pal, the president. He wrote to Biden last October to plead for him to mitigate the situation. Since then Pritzker said he has been in more frequent contact with the White House.

She concludes,

Illinois voters should look in the mirror and accept the fact that they voted for this. Pritzker should look no further than his own mirror because this is what he put in place. Democrats want to crow about being leading sanctuary cities and states until the illegal aliens actually show up. There was no such whining and emoting when DHS was flying and bussing illegal aliens from border states into the interior of the country when the Biden border crisis began in 2021. Democrats haven’t been complaining about DHS turning every state into a border state.

Pritzker asked for it. He can deal with it now.

Take a victory lap, Deanna Fisher.

The chaos is the point. Having the border wide open is the point. This was an intentional decision by the Biden administration. Do you think the administration cares where the illegal migrants end up? Not really. The point is to just get them inside in the first place, because not only does it make the left “feel good” about letting them in, but hey, cheap labor!

After all, what are blue states like Illinois and New York going to do because they’re mad? Vote Republican??? What is Pritzker going to do – support the Republican nominee??? The Biden administration takes these blue areas for granted, and politicians like Pritzker, Johnson, and Adams are just going to keep rolling over and begging for federal aid, because they fail to understand that they brought this upon themselves.

Pritzker, Johnson, and Adams are getting what they asked for, and they’re getting it good and hard. And it’s all because Abbott and DeSantis decided to make them play by their own rules.

Indeed.