By Bethany Blankley
(The Center Square) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this week invited New York City Mayor Eric Adams to visit the southern border and see first-hand the costs Texans are bearing as a result of “President Biden’s border crisis.” By Friday, he’d announced the first bus of illegal immigrants had arrived in New York City from Texas.
Abbott’s invitation came after Adams publicly blamed the Texas governor for the influx of illegal immigrants being flown into his “sanctuary city,” calling it a “humanitarian crisis.” The city’s budget, its social services, including its homeless shelters, are all strained, and its public schools will be experiencing an influx of enrollment of non-English speakers he said the city doesn’t have the resources to support.
But after Adams didn’t take up his offer to visit the southern border, Abbott began busing people to NYC.
On Friday, Abbott announced the arrival of the first bus that dropped off people Friday morning at the Port Authority Bus Terminal Gate 14.
“Because of President Biden’s continued refusal to acknowledge the crisis caused by his open border policies, the State of Texas has had to take unprecedented action to keep our communities safe,” Abbott said. “In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city. I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief.”
Abbott also said he would continue to bus people to Washington, D.C. “until Biden does his job of securing the border.”
He told Fox News, “Public officials across the country … need to realize the magnitude of the chaos created by Biden’s open border policies. They’re up in arms about a few thousand people coming into their communities over the past few months. In any one sector of the state of Texas, we have more than 5,000 people coming across every single day. We’re full in the state of Texas. Our communities are overrun.”
As one of the few cities in the U.S. with “right to housing” laws, New York City is required to provide emergency shelter for every unhoused person.
Abbott pointed out that the mayor’s problem wasn’t with him but with Biden.
“President Biden’s open border policies created this ongoing humanitarian crisis,” he said, “allowing record-high illegal crossings and deadly drugs like fentanyl to flood into our state. A crisis that has overrun and overwhelmed our border towns and communities across our state, whose requests for help have gone ignored and unanswered by the Biden Administration.”
While Adams and the mayor of Washington, D.C., have complained about receiving several hundred people a day combined, Texas is dealing with over 5,000 people entering its five Border Patrol sectors every day.
In June in the Big Bend Sector, there were nearly 3,000 people who were apprehended or recorded as gotaways. In the Del Rio Sector. there were over 57,000; in the El Paso Sector, over 35,000; in Laredo Sector, over 14,000; in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, over 49,000.
The Biden administration has been releasing illegal immigrants from over 150 countries into the U.S. instead of deporting them or requiring them to remain in Mexico while their immigration-related claims are considered. The administration’s catch and release program is one of several policies that Florida has sued over.
Texas also has sued over numerous border security and immigration-related policies, having already won several cases.
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This is a crises not “let’s pass the bill” mentality. Why would the Texas governor who is already under scrutiny for the actions of his officers, who allowed Alvarade school children to die send poor immigrants to die in a large city. They were doing him no harm only desperate ans wanting to join theirs families. Granted there are criminals and that could have been handled accordingly. The law was only being followed regarding those souls. But what is the law to bus them to other states. He should have taken that money and helped his fellow man. Eventually they would have moved on or better yet brought in more revenue. What a racist state, with a long history of being unfair to people of color . He is in the governor’s mansion while they are in cages. He only wants the votes when the time comes. Well sir, this wouldn’t help you one bit if you go out of Texas.