New York Republicans will fête Governor Abbott next week, but it’s Empire State Democrats who would benefit most from hearing what the Lone Star leader has to say on the migrant crisis. Far from welcoming the governor, though, Mayor Adams has been likening him to the Joker. “Instead of inviting Governor Abbott to speak at a gala,” City Hall tells our Maggie Hroncich, “we encourage members of the NY GOP” to push for “immigration reform.”

Mr. Adams’ office contends that Mr. Abbott “chose to treat human beings as political pawns by busing tens of thousands of migrants” to New York and other cities, accusing the governor of lacking “compassion and care.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has suggested Mr. Abbott is unfit for office because of his policy of sharing the burden of the migrant influx. The vitriol of New York Democrats is unwarranted, but their frustration is understandable. 

After all, the Times reckons that Mr. Abbott “helped to change the terms of the national debate over immigration.” He did so by calling the left’s border bluff. For years, self-righteous “Sanctuary Cities” patted themselves on the back for their openness and solicitude for illegal immigrants. After President Trump’s 2016 win, Mayor Emanuel of the Windy City told migrants who were “very nervous and filled with anxiety, you are safe in Chicago.”

Mr. Adams won election on a vow that “New York City will remain a sanctuary city.” While these liberal burgs preened, it was the cities along the Southern border that bore the brunt of unchecked illegal immigration. They had to shelter and educate the millions of illegals who crossed a border left wide open by Democratic policies. Mr. Abbott gave these liberal cities a taste of the medicine they had prescribed to communities all along the Rio Grande.

As it turns out, these liberal cities and states aren’t quite as grateful for the arrival of migrants on their doorstep as their earlier rhetoric suggested. “Why send these folks only to blue cities or blue states?” Governor Pritzker lamented. “Why isn’t Abbott sending refugees to Mississippi or Oklahoma or Idaho?” Mr. Adams expressed fears the migrants would “destroy” New York. Chicago’s City Council was even weighing dropping its Sanctuary City status.

It’s a testament to the effectiveness of Mr. Abbott’s busing tactic that some on the left are now weighing the problem of an open border. The “headache” Mr. Abbott induced means Democrats “are rethinking some of their views,” a Syracuse professor, Grant Reehr, tells Newsweek, “as they watch their local governments struggle to handle the new arrivals.” Yet as these liberal enclaves flail in search of a solution, Mr. Abbott is already ahead of them.

That’s because, just as it’s started to sink in for Democrats that illegal migrants pose substantial costs for local governments, Mr. Abbott and the Texas legislature have come up with a way to — imagine — cut down on the number of border crossers. He is, in effect, offering these liberal enclaves a reprieve by volunteering the service of Texas’ Rangers to police the border that President Biden has left wide open to any and all comers. 

The only wrinkle is that Mr. Biden doesn’t merely prefer to leave the border unpoliced — he doesn’t want states to patrol it, either. This is the crux of a dispute now playing out in the federal courts, in which the Supreme Court handed Mr. Abbott a win — albeit briefly — last week. The case is now before the riders of the Fifth United States Appeals circuit, which must decide if Texas has the right to protect itself from a de facto “invasion.”

Which brings us back to Mr. Abbott. City Hall’s likening him to Batman’s nemesis in the film “The Dark Night,” the Joker, strikes us as off. “Some men,” the deputy mayor said, “just want to watch the world burn. Greg Abbott is that man.” Instead of mocking Mr. Abbott, it would be more logical for the Democrats to work with him on border security — or at least hear him out. We’d imagine the GOP could set aside seats at its gala for Hizzoner.