Texas ships first batch of illegal immigrants to Chicago

Chicago is the latest target for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign to bus illegal immigrants to Democrat-led cities, after the Republican governor announced the first busload arrived Wednesday.

The migrants were dropped off at Union Station in the city’s downtown, Mr. Abbott said. Chicago joins Washington and New York as drop-points for Texas.

The governor said all three are “sanctuary cities” that promote themselves as safe havens for illegal immigrants, so he figured they should share the load of the crush of illegal immigrants streaming across the border into his state.

“Mayor [Lori] 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,” Mr. Abbott said.

Since the governor began the bussing program in April, Texas has shipped more than 7,000 illegal immigrants to other locations at state expense.

The move drew howls of outrage — and demands of federal help — from New York Mayor Eric Adams and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Texas says it is taking illegal immigrants whom the Biden administration caught and released onto its streets and putting them on buses to head elsewhere. All migrants who get on the buses have done so voluntarily, Texas says.

The Biden administration has lashed out at the governor, though it’s sent conflicting messages.

The White House initially mocked the busing campaign, saying the migrants were likely to be headed to those destinations anyway, and now are going at Texas taxpayers’ expense. But the administration later changed tactics and complained that Texas was complicating Homeland Security’s ability to keep track of released migrants.