Republicans have been labeled "cruel" and even xenophobic over illegal immigration stances, but the mainstream media doesn’t seem to mind when Democratic Mayors Eric Adams and Muriel Bowser sound the alarm about thousands of illegal immigrants arriving in their sanctuary cities.
Former President Trump has been vilified as xenophobic over his immigration policy and border wall by countless liberal pundits and mainstream journalists. The Miami New Times included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2018 promise he would only allow legal immigrants in a list of "racist stuff" the Republican has done, The Guardian cautioned that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R., "echoed the xenophobic rhetoric" of Trump, and other high-profile Republicans have been shamed by the press over immigration for years. However, the disparaging monikers seem to vanish when a Democrat is the elected official poo-pooing immigrants, but conservative radio host Jason Rantz isn’t surprised.
"Let's not be shocked that left-wing media outlets are going easy on Democrats on illegal immigration," Rantz told Fox News Digital.
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New York City Mayor Adams, and his Washington, D.C. counterpart Bowser have both reminded everyone that their population hubs are supposed to welcome everyone when it was politically convenient. In 2016, only a few days after President Trump won the presidential election, Bowser issued a statement reaffirming that D.C. is a sanctuary city, which indicates local law enforcement will be restricted from cooperating with federal immigration agencies. Adams followed suit and tweeted when campaigning in 2021, "Yes, New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration." Such cities and states will often also move to abolish any distinction between legal and illegal immigration.
In recent weeks, thousands of migrants have been sent from Texas and Arizona to the two Democratic-run cities, forcing Adams and Bowser to change their tunes.
Both Democrats and liberal media blasted Abbott for a busing program – the "ReidOut" MSNBC blog called it a "cruel publicity stunt" – which has seen Texas send dozens of buses full of migrants to Washington, D.C. and New York. Rantz believes many news organizations have echoed Adams and Bowser to make Abbott seem like a villain.
"We have so much video of migrants streaming across the border that would overload the servers of YouTube if we uploaded it all," he continued. "And what did the media do? Pretended it didn't exist. Problem at the border? What problem? Now that the problem is hitting Democrats where they live, they're complaining, and the media is framing their coverage of evil Republican Governor Greg Abbot inhumanely busing migrants to NYC and D.C. How laughable."
New York City has struggled for more than a year under a severe homeless crisis, which migrant busing has only exacerbated. Meanwhile, Bowser has repeatedly called for the deployment of the National Guard, while describing the migrant influx as a "humanitarian crisis."
Both Democratic mayors have asked for federal help. Neither the D.C. nor New York City mayors’ offices responded to requests for comments from Fox News Digital about whether they are reconsidering their sanctuary policies given the migrant surge.
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"If big Democrat-run, sanctuary cities that previously welcomed illegal immigrants can't handle them, shouldn't the media cover the burden of small towns in Texas and Arizona trying to get a hold of the situation? The double standard here is typical but still pretty loathsome," Rantz said. "No wonder so few people trust the media."
Adams has touted what he sees as welcoming response from New York City, and has he helped locate housing for migrants, while Bowser requested that the D.C. Armory be used as a processing center -- but they publicly complained, nonetheless.
Many mainstream outlets have reported on Adams and Bowser’s positions without sniffing the xenophobic label, often blaming Republican governors. Axios reported that New York and Washington, D.C. were "overwhelmed" but "officials say they are not prepared to handle the massive influx of migrants, in large part due to communication issues with Texas."
CBS News noted Adams is "furious" with Abbott, Politico reported the mayor "condemned" the Texas governor and the Washington Post reported "Adams greeted a group of migrants… then slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending buses of asylum seekers from the border to the city." While local New York outlets gave Adams heat earlier this month over a possible scandal that a whistleblower was allegedly fired for raising concerns about migrant conditions, CNN's Brianna Keilar didn't bring it up in a "New Day" interview with Adams on Aug. 12, instead focusing on his war of words with Abbott.
Adams was scolded, however, for "blowing his chance to be truly welcoming" in an MSNBC opinion column by Julio Ricardo Varela on Aug. 14, but he was hardly vilified as xenophobic – meanwhile, the "ReidOut" blog said earlier this year Republicans were ramping up "xenophobic rhetoric" around illegal immigration.
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DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall believes "establishment media have been quite inconsistent in management of the rhetoric" surrounding immigration.
"It is particularly unhelpful to throw labels on people who simply disagree with immigration policy....or lack of immigration policy. The establishment media now have a real problem trying to characterize the opposition of Adams and Bowser to having immigrants bussed into their cities," McCall told Fox News Digital.
"As Democrat mayors of important cities, the media like to give them both generous coverage, but they can't bring themselves to label the mayors as xenophobic or some such," McCall continued. "This inconsistency in rhetorical framing is yet another reason why regular Americans have lost confidence in the media to be fair and report news in a measured fashion."
Fox News’ David Rutz, Anders Hagstrom and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
