Over many years, the Watchdog has viewed thousands of hours of video of City of Naperville council meetings. 99% of this footage is very mundane, if not outright boring. Every once in awhile, drama unfolds and a councilman will do something bold. We saw Patrick Kelly call for an end to pet stores. We saw Kevin Coyne call for State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray’s resignation. Who can forget Becky Anderson wanting Naperville to become a Welcoming City for illegals (how does that idea look now?).
At the last meeting, Josh McBroom took his turn at swinging for the fences. He brought forward a motion to direct staff to offer residents the chance to sign up to bring homeless migrants into their homes. This motion came in response to some residents suggesting that Naperville should do more to help the migrants … not just send them packing.
The press went wild with both love and hate for McBroom’s idea.
While McBroom’s intent was somewhat confused at first, it’s apparent now from McBroom’s many interviews, that McBroom intended his motion as a poke toward those who want all of our taxpayers to pay for the migrant crisis and toward those who believe that more migrants should be kept here and not passed on to Chicago. McBroom’s motion implies that maybe its more fair for those who support open borders and/or our sanctuary state status to be the ones taking care of the thousands of migrants now coming to Illinois.
FoxNews and numerous other media outlets adored McBroom’s take. McBroom’s motion has been covered, not just nationally on FoxNews multiple times, it has been covered in Newsweek. Its been discussed on Charlie Kirk’s show. For God sake, The San Juan Times wrote a piece about it in Puerto Rico. No Naperville councilman has ever caused such a media frenzy.
But was it worth it and did anything of value come from it?
We say yes.
The migrant crisis may very well represent the greatest failure of our executive branch in American history. All aspects of this manmade disaster should be picked apart and questioned. To the extent that McBroom has added anything to this debate, then his motion was worthwhile. It is evident that millions of Americans agree with Josh’s suggestion. Whether you are one of those who agree with him or not, its undeniable that McBroom has added to the debate and has underscored the urgency of this situation.
Thank you to Josh McBroom for having the courage to not sit on your hands and for highlighting the absurdity of this crisis. We call on all other officials to follow McBroom’s lead and to take action, however you can, to bring this ridiculous migrant fiasco to a close.
He did us all a service in calling out the hypocrites who populate our fair city!
I think it started a great conversation. It also pointed out the hypocrisy of the left, which we need to do so we can then have an actual conservation and resolve issues. If one side of the discussion relies strictly on emotion claiming some high virtue you can never get to the facts and solve the issue. The facts are that the border is open, illegal immigrants are dying making the trip, crimes are being committed by these illegals, and all of this on the tax payer. There is a crisis at the border for many states, and that should be the starting point for any discussion. Instead, many on the left, start with pointing out they are migrants not illegals, and we should have compassion as the starting point. Let’s get past that part of the conversation and solve the problem.
The feds’ border failure and the local crises it creates are so obvious, one has to wonder at the administration’s true motivations.
• Is it a genuine desire to help?
• Is it designed to eventually increase the number of voters who will support the administration’s party?
• Is it intended to make the border a campaign issue to goad the opposition into supporting a candidate under multiple indictments?
• Is it a smokescreen to cover other, more egregious issues only to be dissipated by strong border measures nearer the election?
This is not an all-inclusive list of the possibilities.
In addition to the well-publicized chaos, there is another true cost to the administration’s failure: the opportunity cost of restricting potential immigrants who would bring intellectual and economic capital to our nation; who would help create jobs and wealth. The permitted numbers of these immigrants is so small as to encourage them to migrate to more welcoming countries, including Canada. So we welcome refugees by the tens of thousands who will not strengthen our nation, when only a fraction of them will meet our immigration criteria, and shut out many potential immigrants who both 100% meet our criteria and would strengthen this country.
I applaud those who bring the administration’s absurdity to our attention, even if for self gain. We and all potential immigrants to this country deserve better border policy and enforcement.
It’s too bad mcbroom backed down and withdrew his support for creating a list. Now he is trying to claim nobody signed up. No DUH! Can’t sign up if there is no list. Local progressives called his bluff.
It’s sad, but I wasn’t surprised to see right-wingers turn their hate and threaten McBroom. The left understood mcbroom wasn’t being serious, as McBroom said the left was laughing at the right-wingers having a meltdown thinking he was serious.
Only thing accomplished was more division in town.
First off what McBroom proposed was that the city staff look into setting up and maintaining a list of Naperville residents willing to house immigrants and report back to city council. The staff, after looking into the matter, determined that various local, state and federal organizations are already doing this for the Naperville area and for the city to duplicate these efforts would be counter productive as well as a waste of city resources (i.e. the city maintaining such a list would be an unnecessary waste of city taxpayer dollars). This is why the city staff recommended not doing this and matter received no further consideration by city council. All anyone needs to do to learn the fact is read the Managers Memorandum issued by the city and posted on its website.
Second, as has been pointed out, the vast majority of Naperville residents actually lack the resources needed to meet the needs of these migrants. These people need someone that speaks their language and understands the culture they come from so they can help them get the assistance they need. This one requirement is just the tip of the iceberg of what these immigrants need, they need assist in their asylum case, getting their work permits, get a job, find a permanent place to live, etc. Simply having good intention is not enough to make the situation better, in fact it can have the unintended consequence of make the situation worse. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Finally, remember that most of the resources these immigrants will need to get their asylum case adjudicated, get a work permit, get permanent residency status, etc are located at government offices in Chicago. Making housing these immigrants in the collar communities a logistic nightmare which translates in to spending more taxpayer dollars for transportation and assistants.
As to McBroom leveraging this situation to his political advantage. This simply make him no better then the long list of career politicians busy exploiting the suffering and misfortune of these immigrants to enrich themselves. Such actions speak volumes as to these politicians moral, ethics and character.
Lets remember the “crisis” at the borders is what conservative politicians ran on in 2016 when they blamed this “crisis” on the liberals and Obama. Even though the situation at the border only got worse between 2016 and 2020 and was trending up (as Border and Customs data shows) these same conservative did not run on this issue in 2020. Now here we are in 2024 and we again have conservatives running on the “crisis” at the border and again blaming it on liberals and Biden. Surprise, Surprise, what else can the do nothing GOP congress run on? They’ve done nothing but infighting for the last 4 years so they are desperate to find anything they hope will have traction this election cycle.
Apparently Haselhorst failed to watch 60 minute’s Sunday night. He and a few other leftist in Naperville are about the only one’s that can’t recognize a crisis when they see one.
I did not say the situation at the border should be ignored.
In fact what I was pointing out was the hypocrisy of the right (conservative, Republicans, GOP) in campaigning on the “crisis” at the border in 2016 but doing nothing that actually fixed the problem over the next 4 years (CBP data shows a clear significant increase in crossings and detainments during this period). And then completely ignored the problem in the 2020 election when the situation was worse then it was in 2016.
This behavior is not only hypocritical but also displays the GOP willingness to ignore “national security” when it is in the party’s best interest (and not the nation’s best interests) to do so. Only becoming concerned about national security when it aligns with the right’s political interests. Another case in point being the invasion of the Ukraine by the authoritarian Russia regime dictated by Putin, which represents not only a clear threat to US national security but also to the national security of our NATO allies.
The only drop in the CBP data is in 2020, during the heart of the pandemic, but even then is was still higher then in 2017 and barely lower then 2018.
Here is the CBP data (remember federal fiscal year starts Oct 1 the previous calendar year) – https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics
Why did Josh McBroom contact the city manager to put a halt to creating a list? I thought mcbroom was going to create a list? He had the city halt the list then spoke to national media outlets/pundits and said nobody signed up. How do people sign up if he told the city to not create a list.
Mcbroom is lying by omission. He won’t admit this publicly, maybe now he will since there is proof. Why did he lie?
The fake virtue and platitudes by the right again. Republicans are hypocrites. This created division
and that’s all it accomplished
Bob Johnson’s comment is as inaccurate as it is untimely. The current border mess, and the resulting consequences, are attributable to the current executive branch, its policies, and its administration of border security.
Moreover, the Republican Party is so fractured at the national level that any categorical statement about its members cannot be true.
They are all part of the hypocritical right.
Actually the trend of doubling the number of border crossing started during the Trump Administration. During his time illegal crossings exploded compared to previous administration (the sole exception being during the pandemic) , setting the pattern and standards that have lead us to the current situation.
Its interesting that the right ignores Trump’s failure to secure the border, blaming it on a obstructionist congress, while hypocritically claiming Biden has all the authority needed to secure the border and using this excuse to refuse to pass any border security or immigration reform legislation.
The fact is that during the time the Senate was controlled by the Republican this legislative body set a new all time low for amount of legislative action achieved. And the currently Republican controlled House is on track to achieve this same level of performance for this legislative body.
So in summary when the Republicans controlled the White House next to nothing was accomplished, close to a million citizens died from a pandemic and border security went to hell in a hand basket, in short a complete failure. Both chambers of congress have also been failures under Republican leadership. Clearly the Republican party is no longer capable of governing and the only things it has gotten good at are in fighting and divisive politics.
We need a party that has constantly proven it ability to led and move this nation forward, not just in the last 50 years but in the last few decades, occupying our federal government’s leadership positions.
Apologies – was addressing Bob Nelson’s comment
“This announcement has been paid for by the Democrat Party. Which is in no way to be compared with your parents’ or grandparents’ Democrat Party because its views have shifted so far left. Any reference to Democrats of old is nostalgic and erroneous.”
Jim, both parties are broken. One puts up a puppet doddard who is inept and easily controlled. The other puts up a fascist narcissist who has no respect for any standard other than his own. It’ll be interesting to see what our country looks like in four years.
And, by the way, your whataboutism neither represents my view nor adequately addresses Biden’s responsibility to secure our borders.
It is not “whataboutism” to point out the border was “broken” or in “crisis” under Trump, long before Biden was elected. Or to point out that Trump complained about lacking the authority to fix the border without new legislation while in office, but now he, along with current Republicans in congress, claim Biden has the authority to fix the border without new legislation. These are clearly contradictory claims meaning either Trump failed to use his authority in securing the border or Biden can not fix the border without new legislation.
I do agree both parties have problems and that both parties have shifted further away from the middle or moderate policies they had in the past. But this really started with Reagan and his promoting the idea that compromise is unacceptable and only the “my way or the highway” position is acceptable to the GOP (and any Republican that disagreed with him was a Republican In Name Only).
The lose of the ability of politicians to put assign their political agendas and rhetoric, to work out a compromise that best met the needs of the country, has damages the ability of elected official to govern. And introducing this same dysfunction into Naperville’s city council will result in the same loss of ability to govern.
You need to reread your history books. While Reagan was president the Dems controlled the house and it wasn’t even close. Therefore there was “no my way or the highway” , it was a time of compromise. Tip O’Neill worked together with Reagan because of the republican president’s popularity.
Your statement is false. During Reagan’s first six years the Senate was controlled by the Republicans with HW Bush as Senate President. The Democrats did not gain control congress until 1987. Further Reagan’s “my way or the highway” position resulted in a record 8 government shutdowns during his presidency. Not sure what history books your reading but clearly they got it wrong on this issue.
I remember the Reagan presidency very well because I was a government employee during this presidency and I saw the damage his “my way or the highway” position did to the US government and its ability to serve the best interest of citizens of this country. Government corruption in the Reagan administration hit an all time high, with record numbers of administration members being investigated, indicted, arrested, convicted and jailed. The government documents (publications) telling us what we could and could not say about this corruption were showing up on my desk almost daily.
Reagan used his popularity to bully everyone that did not agree with him or go along with him. Just because Reagan had a very good PR team does not mean it never happened. He wasn’t as bad a Trump, but he was there first.
My statement is correct. I stated the Dems had a huge majority in the house , which they did. The republicans on the other hand had a small 3 or 4 vote majority in the senate. Remember, spending bills originate in the house.
Still waiting for all that wealth to trickle down that Regan promised. More platitudes and hypocrisy from the right.
“Trickle down” was a phrase the dems coined to foster resentment toward high income earners . It appears to have worked.
Supply side economics didn’t work. We have 40 years of data that proves it was a flop, unless you are the wealthy elite.
It appears the golden boy Regan failed. He added $1.412 trillion in deficits and almost doubled the debt during his eight years in office. He also grew government spending
Actually this was the phrase used by members of the Reagan Administration to explain how giving the rich and corporations massive tax breaks would benefit the remaining 99% of the country. It actually was a popular theory at the time but controversial. Many economists debunked trickle down economics as nothing more then a windfall for the rich & corporations and history has proven them right. If Conservatives want to turn back the clock then I support it when it comes to the top income tax brackets. Let roll them back to when Kennedy was in office!
Spending bills do not need to originate in the House. Both the Senate and the Whitehouse have submitted spending bills to the house for approval. All spending bill must be passed by the House before they can be approved by the Senate. Also Governance of this country is about a lot more then just spending and all non-spending bill come from the Senate. Finally just because the House holds the purse strings, does not mean it controls spending. It was the Senate and Reagan that shutdown the government a record 8 times, not the House.