Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told Newsmax Friday that New York City should take in 150,000 illegal immigrants as its "fair share" instead of declaring an emergency over the 17,000 sent there from border states.
"There's 320 million Americans, plus or minus and New York City has about 2% of them," Issa said during "Rob Schmitt Tonight" Friday. "So if you take, let's say 3 million, you get 150,000 people. [That] would be sort of be my arithmetic as their fair share."
Issa was reacting to New York City Mayor Eric Adams declaring an emergency and criticizing the governors in Texas and Arizona for sending an estimated 17,000 illegal immigrants to his city this summer.
"This is a humanitarian crisis that started with violence and instability in South America and is being accelerated by American political dynamics. Thousands of asylum seekers have been bused into New York City and simply dropped off, without notice, coordination, or care — and more are arriving every day," Adams said in a televised address Friday announcing a state of emergency in the city as its shelter capacity jumped above 100,000 for the year.
"This crisis is not of our own making but one that will affect everyone in this city, now and in the months ahead. New Yorkers deserve to know why this is happening and what we plan to do."
The mayor said he signed an emergency executive order that will direct the city's agencies to coordinate efforts to deal with the surge of illegal immigrants being sent to the city, and requests state and federal aid to help offset the estimated $1 billion in expenses to care for them.
"We have not asked for this," he said. "There was never any agreement to take on the job of supporting thousands of asylum seekers. This responsibility was simply handed to us without warning as buses began showing up. There is no playbook for this, no precedent."
Issa said the speech was identical to speeches given by Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas, Gov. Doug Ducey in Arizona, and Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, who have all been experiencing the surge at the border by 10 or 100 times that rate.
He said those states were just as unable to deal with the more than 2 million illegal immigrants that were reported crossing the southern border this year alone.
"They came because the welcome mat was out, and they saw it as a one-time opportunity to get to this country and be ahead of 6 billion other people who would like to be here," Issa said. "The several million are more than America could deal with," he said. "And quite frankly, we're dealing with them so poorly, the rest of the world is laughing at us."
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