In a mid-October post on why so many midterm voters are concerned about immigration, I compared illegal entrants to subway “turnstile jumpers” — riders on public transit who evade paying the fee for the trip. A recent Wall Street Journal op-ed delved into subway safety, offering yet another border lesson — that like officials in New York, the Biden administration is simply managing the decline at the U.S.-Mexico line.
Turnstile Jumping, in Brief. For Americans who rarely if ever take public transit, here’s a brief primer. Large metropolitan transit systems set fares for riding their buses, street cars, and trains.
In D.C., the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) — jointly operated by the District, Maryland, and Virginia — has kiosks in subway (“Metro”) stations selling plastic “SmarTrip” cards that hold a cash balance, which riders can use to pay per trip on the Metro and bus lines. The price of the trip varies by distance and time of day (rush-hour fares are more expensive).
New York’s “Metropolitan Transportation Authority” (MTA) has a similar “MetroCard” system for its subways. Unlike WMATA, where the fare can vary depending upon the length of the trip and the time of day, every trip is $2.75 (there are lower fees for certain groups). A contactless “OMNY” system for bank cards and cell phones is also now available for such payment.
In both the WMATA and MTA systems, there are two turnstiles: one to enter and one to exit. Because D.C. Metro rides aren’t fixed fee, you must tap your SmartTrip card at the beginning (to start the ride) and the end (when you pay). In the NYC MTA system, you pay at the beginning and can simply exit through a one-way turnstile (which prevents entry) at the end.
“Turnstile jumping” is what it sounds like: Jumping over the payment turnstile to avoid having to pay. There’s no ticket to show any police during the ride, so if you don’t get caught doing the jump, you’re home free.
A handful of fare evaders adds up. WMATA estimated that they cost that cash-strapped system $40 million in FY 2022, and New York MTA officials estimate that they will lose more than 12 times that to fare evasion — $500 million — this year.
Comparison to the Border. It’s not an exact cognate, but illegal entry at the border is a lot like turnstile jumping.
To enter the United States legally, a foreign national must either obtain a visa at a U.S. consulate abroad or be exempted from that visa requirement.
The visa process can be complex. An applicant must apply and provide a passport, and if it’s an immigrant visa, have received an approved visa petition. Immigrant visa holders also need a medical exam and often a certificate from the local police showing no criminal history.
Once the applicant has the visa, he or she must then come to the United States and go through the CBP inspections process at the port of entry. Those two checks — one at the consulate and one at the port—are akin to the turnstiles in the WMATA metro system.
Illegal entrants avoid the consular process entirely, and any medical or criminal-background check to which they are subject once apprehended is perfunctory. Nearly 690,000 of them were apprehended and released by Border Patrol in FY 2022 alone, putting the efforts of even the most strident turnstile jumpers in the NYC or D.C. transit systems to shame.
WMATA police will start handing out $100 tickets to scofflaws in Maryland and Virginia (where turnstile jumping is a crime) and $50 tickets to fare evaders in D.C. (where it was made a civil infraction in 2019) in November. New York’s MTA, on the other hand, plans to convene a panel of “distinguished New Yorkers” to come up with solutions.
As pusillanimous as that latter effort is, however, it still puts the Biden administration’s efforts at the Southwest border to shame. The president’s immigration team is loath to even describe what is going on down there as a “crisis”, and aside from a recent plan to dissuade Venezuelan nationals from entering illegally, they are doing nothing to ameliorate the problem.
Managing the Decline. Comparisons between the border and major transit systems don’t end there, however. Which brings me to the Journal op-ed, authored by Carine Hajjar and titled “How to Survive on New York’s Subways. Overwhelmed police pass out pamphlets telling us how to protect ourselves.”
As that headline suggests, NYPD officers have begun handing out a missive captioned “Personal Safety Tips”. According to Hajjar:
Inside, it ha[s] several categories, like “PURSE/WALLET SAFETY” and “WALKING — BE STREET SMART,” with corresponding guidance. It begins with “four ways to increase your personal safety,” the first of which is to “eliminate opportunities that may make you a target.” The second is “trust your instincts.” In other words, keep your head on a swivel.
“Safety first” and all that, and I certainly understand the instinct of government officials to ensure that the public is aware that living in a city comes with risks (muggings, robberies, being pushed in front of oncoming trains) that are less common in the hustings.
Subway crimes in New York, however, have surged of late — they are up more than 41 percent compared to 2021. There have been nine murders there thus far this year, and according to CNN, robberies are up 34 percent and felony assault has increased 17 percent. In September, a tourist from St. Louis was raped in the system.
Arrests are also up, 47 percent compared to last year, while summonses for “quality of life” violations have risen more than 200 percent. Critics, however, blame bail reform, “criminal justice” reform, district attorneys who refuse to prosecute many crimes and offenses, and yes, even turnstile jumpers.
As per New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D):
Transit cops have an old saying: “He who controls the gate, controls the system.” What they mean is most of the people behind serious disorder in the system don’t pay to get in. Ticketing, and in some cases, arresting people for jumping the turnstile used to be a key controller of reducing overall crime in the system. It used to be by the third time a person was caught jumping the turnstile, instead of just another ticket, they could be arrested. The district attorneys are not writing those charges up.
The head of the NYPD detectives’ union asked New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) to replace Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) in January, but although she apparently has that authority, thus far Hochul hasn’t budged.
So instead, the NYPD is managing the decline on the subway system by handing out pamphlets warning riders to beware.
That is similar to the tack that the Biden administration is taking at the Southwest border. Venezuelans aside, the Biden administration not only doesn’t have any plan to deter migrants from entering illegally, it doesn’t have any intention to do so, as DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted in May.
Instead, it wants to provide every foreign national who enters illegally with “safe, orderly, and legal pathways ... to be able to access our legal system”, that is, to allow them to apply for asylum, regardless of the strength of their claims, or even whether they came seeking asylum at all.
To be clear: Rather than keeping illegal entrants out, the administration wants to move them into and through the process, away from the border and into the interior where they will remain indefinitely, if not forever.
Instead of dealing with the humanitarian disaster at the Southwest border, Joe Biden is satisfied just managing the decline. Not only is every town a border town, but the border itself is becoming — through the efforts (and lack thereof) of the Biden White House — as lawless as the New York subway system.