Let's bring in two people affected by the border disaster, Boston radio resident and radio talk show host, Grace Curly, and Chicago resident, Cotter Trust. Thank you both for coming on. I want to go to you first, Grace Curly, because here's some angry residents in Boston Seeport area about this migrant shelter coming. Watch, and I'll get your response.

You said this is real.

How are you going to ensure we're safe? We get no say as residents of the town, residents of the city, neighbors. I would like to see a little bit more compassion.

That's That's my point of view.

Thank you.

The thing here is, Grace, they don't know who these people are. They don't know how many are coming. They have not been vetted. We see this all across the country. They've got schools and museums that are close by, and they just don't know exactly what is going on.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Trace. It's a safety issue, and I think that that's what a lot of people are trying to relay to their elected officials. You can feel the frustration and you can feel the panic from a lot of these politicians especially here in Boston, because obviously, they're Democrats. They're dealing with outspoken constituents who are very unhappy, and they can't really give them any strategy because the White House doesn't have a strategy. All they can really tell people right now is, We understand your frustration, and we're not Donald Trump, and that's not doing anyone any good.

No, it's really not. Cata, trust to you now. We're going to get to your city, Chicago, in a minute, but I want you to weigh in if you could, Cata, on what's happening in Denver, because now Denver is cutting the hours of city employees to pay for the migrants. The Parks and Recreation Director said the following, quoting here, The reduction in hours of operation and programs will affect the number of hours worked by many on call, some to the point where they may not receive any hours. Final decisions on hours for any individual position have not been made yet. Can you imagine someone walking up to you saying, Listen, we have to take care of these migrants, so we're cutting your paycheck? Kata.

Of course, I can't imagine. It's the same The same thing that we're seeing here in Chicago that is happening all over the country where migrants are being deposited. There's no money to take care of them. The President is standing back saying that we have newcomers as if they're supposed to be here. And I think that what people have to realize, and I have to keep saying this, is that at least in Chicago, sanctuary city status only means that we will not report you to the authorities. It does not mean that we are responsible for housing and taking care of you. And again, we're putting migrants before the people in these cities. So now you're saying to the people in Denver, we're going to cut your hours, possibly taking away your livelihood so that we can take care of someone else. In what world does that make sense?

And I wonder to you, Grace Covier, because I think if you had to address your local officials, I mean, What would you say to how they have handled this mess in Boston?

Well, it's funny, Trace, because when I watch a lot of these cuts coming out of residents in Boston, you still do have a lot of people who are saying things like, Well, I'm very compassionate, and I want to handle this with compassion. I think that's the part of this that we haven't been able to shake. You have to let people understand it's not about compassion. People in Texas are very compassionate. People on those border towns are very compassionate. Addressing the fact that this is an untenable situation and having solutions for that doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make you less caring than anybody else. It just makes you a realist with some common sense. We're lacking that right now, especially in the city of Boston. People are just at their wits end. They feel like they've been left in the lurch.

I think you're right. I want to put these numbers up, just so everybody knows what Chicago is going through. If you look at back here, in January of 2023, there were 5,100 of these asylum seekers in Chicago. Now the number It is 36,000. That is more than six times as many in the course of 12 to 13 months, Kata. It is, as Grace was saying, untenable.

It is. And think about the money that has already been spent. In the state of Illinois, with the city and county combined, we have spent over a billion dollars, and that's just this year. And so imagine what it's going to be like as those populations began to grow, as their needs began to increase. Right now, we're seeing an increase in crime, and I'm sure that you're going to see that all over the country as the needs grow and people become desperate. Right now, when these migrants are committing crimes, they're being arrested, and then they're being turned back out onto the streets. We know that when criminals are not prosecuted correctly, they will come out and they will become more brazen with the crimes that they commit. Those communities have a right to be on edge.

They do have a right to be on edge. Cotta Trust, thank you so much, Grace Curly. Thank you for coming on. We appreciate your.