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Texas has now bused more than 30,000 migrants from its state to sanctuary cities across the country, Gov. Greg Abbott announced, taking a victory lap on what has been the most effective Republican public relations effort against President Biden’s border policies.
The strategy started in spring 2022 with a busload of migrants dropped near the U.S. Capitol. Since then, more than 10,700 migrants have been sent to the nation’s capital.
But New York City now tops Mr. Abbott’s list, with 11,500 migrants sent to irk Mayor Eric Adams. Another 4,900 have reached Chicago, 2,100 went to Philadelphia, 520 to Denver and 290 to Los Angeles.
“We will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities until Biden does his job & secures the border,” the Republican governor said Friday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
He has said his goal is to make sanctuary cities feel at least some of the pain of Mr. Biden’s policies, which Texas bears the brunt of.
The 30,000 are a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have been caught and released into Texas over the last year and a half. But even the small numbers reaching those other communities have produced howls of protest and have Democratic officials blasting the White House for inaction.
Mr. Adams in New York this week said his city cannot handle any more migrants.
He pleaded with the president to declare a state of emergency and called the situation a “crisis” — a word the president and his team have tried to avoid.
New York has been a particular target of Mr. Abbott’s busing campaign recently, with some 1,000 migrants sent over the last two weeks alone.
Mr. Adams said his city is getting nearly 3,000 a week, which means his campaign accounts for less than 20% of the migrants showing up in New York currently.
Others are coming with the help of the federal government and nonprofit groups the Biden administration pays to help facilitate the migrants reaching their destinations.
Mr. Adams has singled out Texas for special criticism for sending him migrants, joining a cacophony of criticism from the political left.
That criticism is likely to grow more intense after Texas officials on Friday revealed the death of a child who had been on one of the buses headed to Chicago.
Authorities said the child, like all migrants, had been screened before getting on the bus and showed no signs of ailment. En route, though, the unidentified child “presented with health concerns,” was given aid and rushed to a hospital where the child was declared dead.
Texas said those who are bused are asked beforehand if they want to go. In the case of the bus with the child, Texas said the migrants signed a waiver making clear they were willingly going to Chicago.
“Each bus is stocked with food and water, which are distributed on board, and makes stops along the trip to refuel and switch drivers. Migrants are allowed to purchase any additional provisions or disembark at any of these stops,” Texas officials said.
Mr. Abbott started the bus campaign with Washington in April 2022, added New York a year ago in early August, then Chicago in late August, Philadelphia in November, Denver in May and Los Angeles in June.
Arizona was also busing migrants when the state had a Republican governor last year.
Texas’s busing is part of a broader campaign Mr. Abbott has dubbed Operation Lone Star. Other parts include deploying state troopers and National Guard troops to the border, erecting barriers to try to deter illegal crossings and generally needling the federal government over its welcoming policies toward illegal immigration.
Mr. Abbott on Friday said the operation has led to more than 400,000 migrant arrests and more than 32,700 criminal arrests, leading to 29,900 felony charges. Texas law enforcement also has seized enough fentanyl to account for more than 422 million lethal doses, the governor reported.
“Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies,” the governor’s office said in releasing the data.
The governor’s critics say he’s embracing cruelty in trying to keep the migrants out.
America’s Voice, a leading immigration advocacy group, said the governor was the leader of “anti-immigrant zealotry” within the GOP.
“It’s disheartening to see my home state continue its descent towards extremism on immigration,” said Mario Carrillo, a Texas operative for the group.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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