The state of Texas has spent more than$ 221 million in taxpayer money to travel almost 120, 000 workers to six” sanctuary” places deep north of the southern border, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Nearly all of the charges were picked up by the country’s 30 million people, with a small portion,$ 460, 196, donated from outside parties. Less than 1 % of the$ 221 million was picked up by nontaxpayers.
The costs include billions of dollars that the state has spent to improve border protection, with a record-high number of illegal newcomers detained at the Mexican border since Joe Biden became president in 2021.
A report from the House Judiciary Committee that was first obtained by the Washington Examiner shows that the almost 120, 000 workers who were bused northeast on a voluntary basis are only a small percentage of the more than 5.3 million illegal immigrants who have been permitted to remain in the country.
Although Gov. Democrats have objected to the enormous investments being made to move refugees out of border towns, despite the fact that Greg Abbott (R-TX ) has asserted that it was intended to deter illegal immigration into Texas communities and reduce the high demand at open airports and vehicle stops where unlawful immigrants released at the borders have sought travel to places nationwide.
New York City’s Democrat Mayor Eric Adams, who was on the receiving close as Texas cars dropped off 45, 900 workers in Manhattan, accused Abbott of using persons as political pawns.
” While the Adams administration has saved taxpayers over$ 2 billion in costs related to the migrant crisis, Governor Abbott has wasted over$ 220 million on an ill-conceived policy that has failed to deliver meaningful results for , either , taxpayers , or migrants”, said Adams deputy press secretary Liz Garcia in an email Wednesday.
Despite the$ 21 million costs, Matt Woking, vice president of contacts at Democratic consulting firm Axiom Strategies, claimed Abbott also came out on top in the end.
In a text message, Wolking wrote that” this energy good saved lives in Texas, defrayed expenses for citizens in the position, and produced a windfall of earned media coverage regarding the obligations created by large illegal immigration.”
” The return on investment was evidently a success. Texas saved money it would have had to pay for public security, public education, the justice system, and happiness, and shifted those prices to shelter places, exposing liberals ‘ duplicity on this topic in the process”, Wolking said. ” Republicans may continue to give Democrat representatives more of what they claim to wish: the opportunity to welcome, feed, clothe, house, and monetarily support unlimited amounts of noncitizens. It’s a potent strategy to mobilise support for border security.
Abbott announced in April 2022 that the state would provide immigrants who had been detained by federal Border Patrol agents and who had been granted temporary residence in the United States through immigration court proceedings with state-funded bus rides to Washington.
Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden administration to Washington, D.C., Abbott said during a press conference at the time.” To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hoards of illegal immigrants are being overwhelmed by hoards of…
Texas is taking action to secure our state & country.
The bus of migrants that arrived in New York City this morning is a tiny fraction of the border crisis Texas faces on a daily basis.
It's time for Biden to do. his. job. pic.twitter.com/FO9DrtrTeV
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 5, 2022
According to Abbott,” We are sending them to the United States ‘ capital, where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border,” adding that people would be dropped off at the” steps of the United States Capitol.”
On certain days of the year, the buses limped past the Capitol and picked up migrants outside Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence, including on Christmas Eve.
In 2022, Abbott also announced bus routes to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles.
Since 2022, more than 210 000 migrants have crossed the southern border in New York City, including the 45, 900 who were transported by Texas.
Garcia claimed that whenever buses arrive in Manhattan, the city is in a predicament because Abbott’s office failed to warn them or notify them ahead of bus drop-offs.
Buses from Texas were sued last year by New York City, but the lawsuit was dismissed in court this summer. Buses to the Big Apple have been dramatically curtailed in Texas over the nine months since the lawsuit was filed.
While doing so, the city also decided to set a cap on how long immigrants could stay in homeless shelters, which some Democrats claimed was in opposition to the city’s right-to-shelter law.
” Thanks to our 30- and 60-day policies— and intensified casework — approximately , 70 percent of the migrants that have come through our care have already taken the next steps in their journeys, and the population in our shelter system,  , and the migrant population overall,  , continue to dip as a result of the executive action Mayor Adams took last winter against , Governor Abbott’s scheme to transport tens of thousands of migrants , to other cities”, said Garcia.
The Washington Examiner was the first report to come out in August, and as far back as October 2023, Texas stopped sending buses northbound carrying migrants. The bus’s travels to Los Angeles in January and Washington stopped 11 months ago, while those to Philadelphia stopped in December 2023.
Since the operation ended in June of this year, 119,700 migrants have been transported to the six cities.
When questioned about the end of the busing, Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris claimed that Mexico’s illegal border crossings into Texas had significantly decreased.
The number of illegal immigrants detained at the southern border has decreased more than historical levels since the spring, easing the strain on Texas’s public transportation system.
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Before the November election and the transition period before January, when arrests have historically increased, will determine whether there will be a return to busing.
Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
