Sunday shows preview: Border states send migrants to sanctuary cities; DOJ appeals for access to Mar-a-Lago docs

The transportation of undocumented immigrants from multiple southern border states to sanctuary cities and the Justice Department’s (DOJ) appeal to access some of the materials it obtained from Mar-a-Lago last month will likely dominate this week’s Sunday talk show circuit. 

Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis (Fla.), Greg Abbott (Texas) and Doug Ducey (Ariz.) have sent migrants to northern cities run by Democrats with more lax undocumented immigration policies in opposition to President Biden ending Title 42, a Trump-era policy that prevented migrants from seeking asylum amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Abbott sent a bus of migrants from the southern border to Chicago at the end of last month and sent two buses of migrants to the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., the residence of Vice President Harris, earlier this week. 

Ducey has sent 1,800 migrants to D.C. since May, the Associated Press reported. 

DeSantis confirmed on Wednesday that he had two planes containing about 50 migrants in total fly them to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The flights originated in San Antonio but made several stops on the way, Massachusetts state Sen. Julian Cyr (D) told The Hill. 

New York City has been one of the main locations that the governors have sent the migrants. 

Mayor Eric Adams (D) said in remarks at the city’s Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center on Thursday that the city has received more than 11,000 asylum-seekers in the past few months, an “unprecedented” amount. He said more than 8,000 are being housed in the city’s shelter system. 

“We will continue to welcome asylum seekers with open arms and provide them the services they need,” he said. “And we are seeking to get additional resources.” 

Adams, who will appear on ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” said he communicated with the White House on Tuesday to request the resources that the city needs and is working with federal, state and local lawmakers. He has previously called for federal assistance. 

“This country was built on immigrants and by immigrants. And we’re going to honor the tradition, born here in New York City,” he said. “We are going to have open doors to them, not close the doors in their faces like we’re seeing in other parts of this country.” 

Adams has accused Abbott of using the migrants as “political pawns to manufacture a crisis.” An Abbott spokesperson told The Hill that Adams should call on Biden to “take immediate action to secure the border.” 

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) represents a congressional district along the southern border with Mexico that includes outskirts of San Antonio. Cuellar, who will appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” is one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress and joined Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) last year in calling on the Biden administration to appoint a border czar to oversee the number of migrants coming across the border. 

Face the Nation tweeted that Cuellar will discuss the migrant buses the GOP governors have sent and if it is a political move to “spotlight” a policy challenge. 

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) has joined a chorus of Democrats in slamming the moves by the three governors. Durbin led unsuccessful immigration reform negotiations with Republicans earlier this year. 

Durbin said Abbott’s action sending the migrants to Chicago without any coordination with local authorities was “cruel and inhumane.” He said the flood of migrants has strained Chicago’s social welfare services, and officials have set up cots at the Salvation Army rescue center for them. 

Durbin will appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

The latest development in the Mar-a-Lago saga will also likely be a subject of discussion. The DOJ filed an appeal on Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit, requesting that the court overturn a judge’s ruling that prevents federal investigators from reviewing the more than 100 classified documents it obtained from former President Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., property while a special master reviews the other materials. 

Judge Aileen Cannon ruled in favor of Trump’s request earlier this month for a special master to review if any of the materials are protected by attorney-client or executive privilege. The DOJ responded by asking Cannon to overturn the ruling regarding the classified documents it obtained and said it would appeal to a higher court if she did not do so. 

Cannon denied the DOJ’s request and appointed a special master that both Trump and the DOJ agreed to on Thursday. 

John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence for Trump, has raised questions about the DOJ probe, telling CBS in an interview last month that nothing he saw in the partially redacted affidavit that the FBI used to obtain a search warrant of Mar-a-Lago justified what seemed like an “extreme” approach by federal investigators. 

Ratcliffe will appear on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” 

The DOJ has said that classified documents were likely concealed from Mar-a-Lago in an attempt to obstruct the investigation. Multiple news outlets reported Friday that a Trump attorney told the National Archives last year that the boxes Trump took from the White House only contained news clippings. 

Graham, who will appear on “Fox News Sunday,” warned last month that there would be “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted over his alleged mishandling of classified and sensitive documents. He later defended the comment after he received pushback, saying that he was trying to “state the obvious.” 

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows: 

ABC’s “This Week” — New York City Mayor Eric Adams; Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova 

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); Joe O’Dea, Republican Senate nominee in Colorado 

CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas); University of Chicago Professor Robert Pape 

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Adams; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield; Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) 

“Fox News Sunday” — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein 

Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” –– John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence; Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas); Lee Zeldin, Republican nominee for governor of New York; Miranda Devine, New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor