Like New York City and Mayor Eric Adams, like Chicago and Mayor Brandon Johnson. Toss in an evergrowing number of illegal aliens, and all hell breaks loose in both once-proud Democrat cities. 

As I wrote in mid-March, embattled Johnson and his "sanctuary city" began to boot illegal aliens from city and state shelters — yet another hypocritical Democrat example of "Do as I say, not as I do" — in a desperate attempt to ease the city's financial exposure to the crisis. 

Now, as the Windy City's spending on illegal aliens approaches $300 million, criticism of Johnson — who has managed in just 11 months in office to make former Mayor Lori Lightfoot look competent — is exploding.

In addition to pegging the $300 million cost, data from the city's “New Arrivals Mission” website shows more than 38,000 illegals living in Chicago, with roughly 9,700 still residing in city shelters.

Chicago-area community activist Tio Hardiman, executive director of Violence Interrupters, a non-profit organization that "focuses on high-level gang mediation and stopping retaliations," has had enough of Johnson and his (un-)handling of the illegal alien crisis. (Emphasis, mine.)

First and foremost, spending $300 million on illegal immigrants is a slap in the face of all the law-abiding citizens. Then the money is not really being totally accounted for, that's another slap in the face because the taxpayers have no say on how their money is being spent. 

That's the reason why the law-abiding citizens voted down [real estate transfer tax referendum] Bring Home Chicago. That's why if the citizens could have voted on whether Chicago would remain a sanctuary city, they would have voted it down.

Referred to by proponents as a "mansion tax," the failed Bring Home Chicago initiative sought in part to increase property taxes on more than 5,000 commercial properties, most of which would have likely increased costs to end-users of affected businesses products and services.

See:

They've Had Enough: Chicago Voters Reject 'Mansion Tax' That Would Have Been Used for Homeless Services

Hardiman said Johnson inherited the city's growing illegal crisis (from Lightfoot) but has made things worse.

The mayor definitely inherited this problem, but the reality is he has executive powers to reverse sanctuary city [status]. "So, the migrants that are already here, yeah take care of them, but then just sign off on it saying no more. He would get backing from a lot of people if he was to do that.

Yeah, I bet Johnson will do nothing of the kind. How can he? How can any Democrat politician who tries to play both sides against the middle? 

Even worse for Johnson, along with Adams in NYC, London Breed in San Francisco, Karen Bass in Los Angeles, and a host of other Democrat mayors across America, what do they do when the very people for whom they do tricks begin to turn against them and their agendas? What we see each of them doing as we speak.

Hardiman agrees.

I don't think it's going to happen because there's no will to make it happen. There's a political agenda ... It's not political with the homeless people that are already here because a lot of homeless people may not vote; they may not get involved. 

So they figure you bring in illegal immigrants, you can get them to work and you can get them to vote. After two years, they become citizens because they already provide them a pathway to citizenship.

Again, the Democrat plan — presently via Joe Biden — is to import as many illegal aliens (future Democrat votes, they believe) as they can get away with until they're stopped.

Finally, the Violence Interrupters executive director made no bones about what he thinks Johnson and the city should now do.

The same way they found money for the illegal immigrants, now they need to dig deep into the state pockets, the county pockets, and city pockets and find the money to house the homeless people in Chicago. They should have the same laser focus on homeless people.

And how would that happen? By further socking it to Chicago taxpayers, of course.

The Bottom Line

The no-win situation facing Chicago and other Democrat-run cities is largely driven by efforts to exploit disparate patches on the party's quilt of traditional voters. Without doing so, Democrat politicians risk losing support from one group or more. That is where Brandon Johnson, Eric Adams, et al. now find themselves.

Joe Biden was unavailable for comment.

RELATED:

Sanctuary City Chicago Mayor Johnson Won't Say How Much Is Being Spent on Illegal Immigrant Shelters

Denver Offering Free Bus Tickets to Illegal Immigrants to Move On - 'The Opportunities Are Over'

The Democrat Party Is Breaking