Arizona Sen. Sinema fumes over NYC receipt of federal funds for asylum seekers

Arizona Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is furious over New York City's receipt of federal relief funds to handle the cost of caring for a surging number of asylum seekers while her state and border communities go without.

New York City is set to receive $104.6 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) relief funds as Democratic Mayor Eric Adams struggles to cope with the rise of asylum seekers in his sanctuary city, The Hill reported. Much of the surge in new arrivals is due to Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's policy of bussing migrants to sanctuary cities in a bid to highlight the Biden administration's lax approach to border security.

Sinema appeared to take issue with the metropolis receiving so much aid when it has only endured a fraction of the adverse effects from the migrant crisis that has so impacted Arizona and the other border states.

"What we’re experiencing here in Arizona is matched only by what folks are experiencing in southern Texas," she said at a Yuma, Ariz., event. "Those are the two communities that are experiencing this crisis... The rest of the country is seeing some elements of it, but we are facing the brunt. And it is wrong and unfair that the... money is going to places other than south Texas and south Arizona."

"The fact that a yeoman's amount of this money went to New York City, in my opinion, is wrong because they are not a border state and they are not facing the kind of pressure that we are facing here," she added. "I want you to know that I am continuing to fight this, and I am livid."

Formerly a Democrat, the moderate Sinema dropped her party affiliation in late December.

New York City has struggled to contend with the multitude of new arrivals, forcing Adams to seek unconventional venues in which to house them and to resort to bussing migrants out of the city, a plan that has encountered legal pushback and engendered outrage among the upstate communities to which he has attempted to relocate them. More than 90,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since April of 2022.

At the southern border, however, the figure of illegal arrivals in much larger. As many as 6 million people have illegally entered the country since January of 2021, when President Joe Biden took office, the vast majority of which have done so via the Mexican border. In the perceived absence of federal support, Texas has begun taking matters into its own hands, seeking the support of other states to help it patrol the border on its own.

The Department of Justice has since challenged Abbott over his efforts, objecting to a buoy barrier floating in the Rio Grande.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.