Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Saturday that the Lone Star state is “filling the gaps left in Biden’s absence at our border,” as another bus carrying some 50 illegal immigrants arrived in New York City from Texas.
A second bus is set to arrive in the Big Apple later on Saturday, according to Fox News.
The buses represent just a fraction of the more than 1,500 migrants Abbott has had transported from the southern border in Texas to New York City.
Abbott noted Saturday morning that Texas has “made over 19,000 arrests, seized over 335.5M lethal fentanyl doses, & sent over 7,400 migrants on buses to DC and over 1,500 to NYC.”
“While Biden ignores the crisis, Texas steps up,” he added.
Abbott previously said he decided to send busloads of migrants to Washington, D.C., and New York City “because of President Biden’s continued refusal to acknowledge the crisis caused by his open border policies,” saying that “the State of Texas has had to take unprecedented action to keep our communities safe.”
“In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” he said earlier this month when the first busload arrived in New York.
“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” he added at the time, noting that New York City has right to housing laws that require the local government to provide “emergency shelter for every unhoused person.”
Now, New York officials say the city is sheltering the migrants in 14 hotels.
Adams asked President Biden to provide federal support to the city last month after he claimed Texas and Arizona were already sending migrants there. He said the city’s homeless shelters have been overloaded with migrants. However, Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey both said it was actually the federal government sending migrants to New York at the time.
Manuel Castro, commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, accused Abbott of “weaponizing aslyum seekers.”
“It is shameful, and it is our moral obligation to condemn the use of human beings for political purposes,” he said.
However, migrants sent from Texas to New York and D.C. have gone voluntarily. The migrants were released from federal custody after illegally crossing the border and given permission to stay in the U.S. with an order to appear in immigration court.