Word Prompt - MESSY - Inna Vernikov

Walk around Manhattan and you will see a truly messy situation! It’s prudent for city government, especially in the largest city in the U.S., to take care of its neediest. But a blanket “Right to Shelter” mandate has allowed government officials to abuse, misconstrue, and apply this new right far too broadly, including to migrants crossing our border illegally. This is a twisted and backwards use of the law, as not only are migrants not “homeless New Yorkers,” they are not Americans by law and certainly are not “New Yorkers.” Many, if not most, do not even have legitimate cases for asylum.

Who can blame the migrants when our government rolls out the red carpet for them? At the local level, limitless benefits and handouts have served as an inducement sweetening the deal. To date, NYC has accepted close to 100,000 migrants who we have enabled to enter our country while ignoring and circumventing our legal system.

I speak as an immigrant, an immigration attorney, and an elected official: The Right to Shelter mandate shouldn’t apply to migrants. If it does, then it essentially applies to everyone on the planet. Kindness and compassion are some of the foundations upon which our country is built, but we are also a nation of laws.

Political opportunism over common sense and the law of the land has become the brand of NYC issue after issue. Give the right to shelter to homeless New Yorkers, and our streets back to The People! Let’s work together and clean up this mess!