In April 2022, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott dispatched his first busload of refugees to New York City. Chicago came next. Then it was Philadelphia.
With the termination of Title 42, a Trump administration expulsion order, on May 11,
Abbott announced Thursday that the state has begun busing detainees from the U.S.-Mexico border to Denver, Colorado, another progressive stronghold.
According to Abbott, the first batch of refugees to arrive in Denver were dropped off near the city’s Civic Center park. According to the authorities, the migrants are taking the buses voluntarily.
Abbott’s initiative to bus migrants to major cities headed by Democrats was first announced in April 2022 to relieve pressure on smaller areas near the southern border. Additionally, he has used the operation to criticize President Biden’s administration’s handling of the unprecedented influx of migrants across the Mexican border in the past two years.
Democrat Michael Hancock, mayor of Denver, referred to Texas’ action as a “stunt.”
According to state data, during a year, Texas sent more than 19,000 migrants to Washington, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia in more than 400 busloads.
Tens of thousands of migrants have arrived in these and other large metropolitan areas, either on their own or with the help of smaller border cities and humanitarian agencies.
Democratic officials in these cities have attacked Abbott for using migrants as political pawns and have chastised him for failing to coordinate the bus arrivals. However, some leaders have also criticized the Biden administration and called for additional federal funding, most notably New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The cities are worried about their ability to provide shelter for more migrants who arrive in the United States without jobs or families here. Also, the immigration court system, responsible for over 2 million ongoing cases, is so backed up that people cannot lawfully work for months after filing an asylum claim.
Adams, a moderate Democrat, has been uncharacteristically critical of the Biden administration, saying that the federal government is “failing” the city.
Since Mr. Biden took office, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of migrants apprehended by U.S. border patrol personnel. The Border Patrol arrested over 2 million illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2022.
