Greg Abbott Is Changing a Democrat Stronghold

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is changing the public sentiment around migrants in the Democratic stronghold of New York.

A new poll released by Siena College on Tuesday found that 84 percent of New Yorkers say that the recent influx of migrants is a problem for the state, with 57 percent describing the situation as "very serious." Those figures represent a growing consensus about the more than 117,000 asylum seekers that have arrived in New York City over the last year.

Migrants that arrive in the nation's largest city after crossing through the U.S.-Mexico border are driven there for varying reasons, but Abbott's Operation Lone Star has been a major factor in the migration patterns. Since the spring of 2022, the governor has bussed 42,000 migrants from Texas to so-called "sanctuary cities" led by Democratic mayors—including 15,000 to New York City—in an effort to pressure the Biden administration to tighten federal immigration policy.

The influx of migrants to New York City has strained the city's shelter system, schools and budget and pushed Mayor Eric Adams to grow increasingly critical of the federal government to help with the costs of absorbing the migrants. New York state has committed $1.7 billion to support asylum seekers and migrants and offered multiple state-owned sites to be used as shelter.

But efforts to address the problem in New York by both Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have done little to reassure residents. Tuesday's survey found that 64 percent of New Yorkers say the state has done enough for new migrants and must move to slow the flow of migrants, a six-percentage point increase from those who said the same just two months ago.

"Seldom do we see an issue where at least 79% of Democrats, Republicans, independents, men, women, upstaters, downstaters, Blacks, whites, Latinos, Catholics, Jews, and Protestants all agree – that the migrant influx is a serious problem," Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a press release.

"Is New York still 'true blue?'" Greenberg asked. "True, 49% of voters are enrolled as Democrats and only 23% as Republicans. True, the last Republican presidential candidate to win here was Ronald Reagan in 1984. But also true is that just last year, a Republican came within seven points of being elected governor."

Last year, Republicans nearly flipped the governor's seat when Representative Lee Zeldin's bid turned the race into the closest New York gubernatorial election in nearly three decades and made Hochul's re-election win the closest Democratic victory in 40 years.

Noting that voters disapprove of the job Hochul and Adams have done to address the influx of migrants, Greenberg said in August, "New Yorkers – including huge majorities of Democrats, Republicans, independents, upstaters and downstaters – overwhelmingly say that the recent influx of migrants to New York is a serious problem for the state."

Abbott has defended his decision to send migrants north from Texas, describing the situation that sanctuary cities face as "calm and organized" compared to the "real chaos" the state sees "every hour of every day" and shifting the blame onto Biden instead.

"The challenge that the city of New York and the state of New York are dealing with is caused by one person: Joe Biden," the Republican said at an event hosted by conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute last month.

Newsweek reached out to Abbot's office via email for comment.

Poll analysis shows that Abbott has been successful in drawing the American public's attention to the border.

When he first began sending migrants to Democratic-led cities last year, only 45 percent of Democrats said the situation at the border was a crisis, according to an Economist/YouGov poll from August 2022. Another survey conducted by Ipsos at that time found that 40 percent of Democrats think it's at least somewhat true that the U.S. is experiencing an invasion at the Southern border.