Mysterious Billboards on Texas-Mexico Border ‘Misleadingly’ Urge Migrants To Pour Into Sanctuary Cities, Promising Free Healthcare, Lax Immigration Enforcement
The mischievous billboards, of unknown provenance encourage migrants to head for San Francisco and New York where ‘diversity is celebrated.’
As so-called Sanctuary Cities buckle under billion-dollar expenditures accommodating the recent influx of migrants, two mysterious billboards in a Texas border town are mischievously encouraging illegal immigrants to keep pouring into overwhelmed San Francisco and New York City.
The billboards, located at El Paso, display alluring images of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Manhattan skyline and declare that “San Francisco Welcomes Immigrants” and “New York City Welcomes Immigrants,” along with a link to sanctuarycities.com.
The simple website features what appear to be stock images elaborating that the sanctuary cities offer a “lower risk of deportation” and a wealth of public services to migrants, including free healthcare.
“San Francisco is a city where diversity is celebrated,” the website reads, then — mockingly — pointing out that “Many San Franciscans believe that their city was stolen from Ohlone people, and that they themselves don’t have a right to be there in the first place.”
The sly reference is to the “Land Acknowledgement” statements commonly seen posted around progressive cities in which residents declare that they are aware their land was stolen from Native Americans.
Another section of the website elaborates on the social services provided by the sanctuary cities. A brief section detailing the healthcare options explains, “Healthy San Francisco is a program designed to make healthcare services available and affordable to uninsured San Francisco residents, regardless of immigration status, employment status or pre-existing medical conditions.”
Activists interviewed by local outlet KVIA decried the billboards as misleading.
The deputy director of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless, John Martin, said, “We don’t know who is behind it, but I will tell you that it’s very misleading.”
He added, “it’s implying that a large number of resources are available to the migrants if they make it there, that could include shelter, basic necessities, food, clothing, legal assistance, housing. In reality, we know based upon what we’ve seen in the media, that that’s not true.”
As has been widely documented, New York, San Francisco and other sanctuary cities do promise to accommodate migrants with generous social services and do not seek to have them deported. Yet these cities are overwhelmed and are struggling mightily to meet their optimistic promises. Mayor Adams at New York is making steep cuts to the city’s budget due to the migrant overflow.
Earlier this year, fliers and mobile billboard trucks promoting similar upbeat messages about sanctuary cities appeared around Eagle Pass, Texas, a site that has become popular for illegal migrants crossing from Mexico. The mobile billboards promoted San Francisco’s “lax shoplifting laws.” The fliers were titled “United States of America Sanctuary City Travel Guide” and lauded San Francisco’s lax cooperation with the national government’s immigration enforcement efforts. It is not clear if the same group is behind both advertising campaigns.
A section of the website labeled “About Us” does not list any information other than a statement that reads, “Everyone knows that diversity is America’s strength.
Bienvenidos!”
The domain’s public registration details that the website was last updated at the end of October. The website was created with the popular website-builder tool, Wix, which blocked the identity of the website’s administrators.
