New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said his state lacks the resources to take in illegal immigrants despite campaign promises to make New Jersey a “sanctuary state.”
Murphy spoke out on August 31 after the Biden Administration placed New Jersey’s Atlantic City International Airport on its list of 11 facilities selected to alleviate the burden on New York City. Despite New York’s “sanctuary” status, the city is struggling to deal with more than 100,000 arrivals over the past year. The influx has led to the construction of dozens of migrant shelters around the city and surrounding suburbs and pleas for federal help from Mayor Eric Adams.
Murphy has pushed back on the Biden Administration’s plans for Atlantic City International and the state of New Jersey as a whole, however. “I don’t see any scenario where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or frankly elsewhere in the state,” Murphy said during a question-and-answer session on August 31. “You need scale, enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything that we can afford. Putting everything else aside, I just don’t see it. I would suspect that that will continue to be the case.”
The governor also chastised the Biden Administration for failing to consult the plan with his office, adding that scores of illegal immigrants have already entered the state without authorization.
Several state lawmakers have also issued criticism of the Biden Administration’s proposal. Republican state Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, Republican Assemblywoman Victoria Flynn and Republican Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger issued a joint statement on Thursday in which they rebuked the president over his failure to secure the border.
“The federal government and Biden administration has neglected its responsibility to deliver on its promises to formulate a solution, dragging countless state and local governments into a problem that is solely their responsibility to fix.”