Blue city residents say migrant surge fueled Trump gains: 'Democratic Party does not own us'
President-elect Donald Trump made historic gains in certain deep-blue areas of the nation, and some residents argue that support stems from the ongoing migrant surge.
Blue city residents believe President-elect Donald Trump made historic gains in Democrat-run cities because of liberal leaders' poor handling of the migrant crisis.
"P-Rae" Easley, a Chicago Democrat-turned-Trump-supporter, and Danielle Jurinsky, an Aurora, Colorado city council member, discussed why residents are fed up with liberal leaders during "The Ingraham Angle."
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"Do you expect your local leaders in Chicago to listen to the people of these cities, even if Democrats still want a majority?" Laura Ingraham asked Easley on Thursday. "They're not happy."
"Before today, I would have said no," she responded. "But today, for the first time in the history of Chicago, the entire city council voted no against the mayor in his budget to fund migrants. It was literally 50 aldermen said no. Straight red across the board. Chicago, red is winning and permeating the conscience of our leadership here."
Chicago, a sanctuary city, has been bombarded with more than 51,000 migrants since 2021, according to city data.
The surge has taken a massive toll on city resources, prompting officials to spend more than $574 million to accommodate the illegal immigrants since 2022.
Amid the ongoing crisis, residents have begun to fight back against the liberal policies, and Easley argued the city council vote was indicative of that conservative shift.
"We vote Democrat in this city because of the culture of patronage and bullying and terrorism," Easley said. "And so we even have a federal decree to make them stop calling the Shakman decree, and so now that that's done, and the people, everyone knows, across every race and socioeconomic class, that the Democratic Party does not own us, Chicago is about to change, and today's city council vote definitely illustrated that."
Meanwhile, the incoming Trump administration is already preparing to dramatically increase its capacity to detain illegal immigrants as part of the massive deportation operation it has pledged to launch in January, Fox News Digital has confirmed -- the latest sign that it plans to deliver on that promise.
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President-elect Trump said during the campaign that he intends to launch a historic mass-deportation campaign in the wake of the historic migrant crisis at the southern border.
"Obviously, the fear is he's talking about going after law-abiding Coloradans who might have lived here for 20, 30 years," Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said regarding the plan. "Obviously, it would devastate our economy and our society if someone were to come in and forcibly take our neighbors away from us. We shouldn't be tearing apart these de facto American families."
Aurora, a Denver suburb, has made national headlines in recent months since Venezuelan gangs have taken over apartment buildings and terrorized local communities.
Trump detailed his "Operation Aurora" plan during a rally in the city in October, a program at the federal level that would remove illegal immigrant members of Tren de Aragua. The program is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle "every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil."
Jurinsky argued that if Polis stands in the way of the Trump administration's deportation plan, it could hurt the Democrats politically in future election cycles.
"It seems that in this state they have become third-class citizens, and American citizens have had to take a backseat to the chaos that our governor and liberal policies and this current administration's failure has allowed to come into this country," Jurinsky said.
"If they see our gov stand as a roadblock… for the incoming administration, for Kristi Noem's team to come in and… relieve this chaos, I think it will hurt the Dems," Jurinsky said. "I think Polis had better get out of the way, as Tom Homan said."
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.