Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called President Joe Biden a hypocrite for being criticized for busing migrants from the border to Democratic enclaves even as the government has flown planes carrying asylum seekers across the country.
Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Abbott, has repeatedly insisted that migrants were willing to choose transportation to Washington, DC and aware of their destinations. However, Democrats have launched attacks against the Republican governor, claiming he tricked migrants into being a political stunt.
Some migrants in El Paso, Texas, told last week that they have no money and are purposely waiting for the “free buses” to New York, DC and other cities to get away from the border and closer to their final destinations to get.
“These migrants willingly chose to go to Washington, DC, after signing a voluntary waiver in multiple languages upon boarding that they had agreed on the destination,” Eze told Fox News Digital.
And they’ve been processed and cleared by the federal government, which dumps them at historic levels in historic border towns like El Paso, which recently declared states of emergency over the Biden-created crisis.
A bus carrying migrants from Texas arrived in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, DC on Saturday, Christmas Eve, and said at least once that he was “happy to be here”.
Abbott sent three buses carrying migrants from Texas to DC on Christmas Eve. Pictured: Migrants arriving outside VP Harris’ residence on Saturday unload their belongings from the bottom of a tour bus
Most recently, three buses carrying migrants were dropped off in DC on Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24 — including at least one that dropped off passengers in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ official residence at the Naval Observatory.
Democrats were particularly upset about this trip.
White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan called it a “cruel, dangerous and shameful stunt”.
“Governor Abbott left children by the side of the road on Christmas Eve in freezing temperatures without coordinating with federal or local authorities,” he said in a statement earlier in the week.
“As we’ve said repeatedly, we’re willing to work with anyone — Republican or Democrat — on real solutions, like sweeping immigration reform and border security measures that President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these are political games.” successfully endanger nothing and only lives.’
Eze responded to the administration’s criticism of Abbott by calling President Biden the “hypocrite-in-chief.”
Migrants warm up by the exhaust of a bus in El Paso, Texas on Tuesday, just as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it would rule on the future of Title 42 in June, extending the policy by another six months
Gov. Greg Abbott’s spokeswoman, Renae Eze, called President Joe Biden “a hypocrite in chief” for criticizing Texas for busing migrants into Washington, DC but flying migrants across the US. Image: Biden arrived on New Year’s leave Tuesday night in St. Croix, Virginia Islands
Texas in the spring began busing migrants out of the border state and into so-called “safe havens,” where local governments have vowed not to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
At the same time, the Biden administration has also received attacks from pro-immigration and Republicans for flying migrants to areas across the country in the middle of the night.
Eze said it was wrong for Biden to criticize while “flying planeloads of migrants across the country, often under cover of night,” according to Fox News.
Texas has bused more than 8,700 migrants into Washington DC since the initiative began in April. Also during this period, 4,500 were moved to New York City, 1,5000 to Chicago, and another 520 migrants to Philadelphia.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered, and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed, that it would continue to enforce Title 42, a pandemic-era public health policy that allows for the immediate deportation of migrants to Mexico or the country they are from without hearing their asylum claims .
The Biden administration originally attempted to end Title 42 in late May, but court challenges delayed the lawsuit another seven months, to Dec. 21. But just days before it was due to end again, the Supreme Court ordered a stay, and the administration requested it remain in place until at least December 27.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hit 233,740 in November — the second month of fiscal 2023
The future of Title 42 is now up in the air, but the Supreme Court is due to rule on the policy in June.
Title 42 was first asserted under then-President Donald Trump at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The order was intended to prevent the spread of the corona virus from entering the United States via the southern border.
Another outcome of the policy, however, was an effective means of containing the southern border crisis.
Perceiving that Title 42 is ending, migrants have flocked to the southern border in recent weeks.
El Paso, Texas, in particular, was overwhelmed by the large number of migrants who crossed the Rio Grande Valley to seek asylum before Christmas.
At least several hundred migrants were released from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody and were forced to take to the streets of El Paso to sleep and try to find shelter as temperatures plummeted below freezing.
Migrants tell there is no space in shelters or they are kicked out at certain times to wander the streets of El Paso.
Others say they have no money and are waiting for buses to take them from El Paso to other US cities. They claim that they have been told that these trips are free and will help them get closer to their final destinations to be with friends or family already in the US
Fiscal 2022 saw a record 2.3 million illegal border crossings at the southern border — and the trend continues in fiscal 2023, with 233,740 CBP encounters in November, and the number is expected to skyrocket once reports arrive in December .
Abbott says he’s started busing migrants out of Texas to relieve strained border communities and draw more attention to the growing crisis.