Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Has Sent Out 300 Migrant Buses: ‘Texas Will Continue Taking Unprecedented Action’

Migrants board a US Border Patrol transport bus after they illegally crossed the US southe
ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Texas reached a major milestone last week after Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who handily won his election, announced the departure of the 300th migrant bus, headed to blue Chicago.

“The 300th Texas bus of migrants just left for Chicago,” Abbott announced two days after the election. “As Biden does nothing, Texas will continue taking unprecedented action to relieve our overwhelmed border communities & secure the border”:

Three days prior, Abbott released the latest figures on his action of deporting migrants to blue “sanctuary” jurisdictions, noting that the Lone Star state has “bused over 13,000 migrants” to these so-called sanctuary cities. That includes over 8,300 to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) Washington, DC; over 3,500 to Mayor Eric Adams’ (D) New York City; and over 1,100 to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago. 

“Texas is stepping up to respond to Pres. Biden’s historic border crisis allowing an influx of people from Mexico into Texas,” he said:

Abbott originally directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to “begin coordinating the voluntary transportation, to Washington, D.C. and other locations outside the State of Texas, of migrants released from federal custody” in April, citing, at the time, President Biden’s plans to end Title 42 expulsions, which could result in “as many as 18,000 migrant apprehensions per day.”

“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has no real plan for addressing this unprecedented surge of illegal aliens but may resort to releasing groups of them in Texas communities whose resources are already overwhelmed,” Abbott wrote in the April 6 letter, emphasizing that “Texans cannot continue to shoulder the burdens imposed by open-border advocates in other parts of the country.”

At the end of August, Abbott announced the that first group of migrants bused to Chicago had made it to the city, adding Lightfoot’s city to the mix of drop off locations. 

 “To continue providing much-needed relief to our small, overrun border towns, Chicago will join fellow sanctuary cities Washington, D.C. and New York City as an additional drop-off location,” Abbott said. 

“Mayor Lightfoot loves to tout the responsibility of her city to welcome all regardless of legal status, and I look forward to seeing this responsibility in action as these migrants receive resources from a sanctuary city with the capacity to serve them,” he added. 

Notably, the sanctuary city leaders were not happy with Abbott bringing the consequences of their polices to their own backyards, as Lightfoot called his move “immoral” and “unpatriotic.” Her office begged residents to donate items for the arrivals, and the Democrat eventually called on Biden to “step up” and provide federal assistance to help with the influx of migrants:

Abbott handily defeated Democrat challenger Beto O’Rourke (R) in the state’s gubernatorial election, beating the Democrat by double digits. O’Rourke blew roughly $77 million on his loss.

Prior to the election, likely Texas voters identified the Texas-Mexico border as a top issue, and more expressed trust of Abbott handling that issue than O’Rourke. 

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