Texas Gov. Greg Abbott applauded the work of the Lone Star State after the busing of migrants to sanctuary cities across the country has come to a halt due to a reduced number of illegal aliens.
Abbott had previously begun busing these illegal aliens as part of Operation Lone Star, which is a joint effort launched in 2021 between the Texas Department of Safety and the Texas National Guard to protect the southern border.
This program was put into place to manage the crisis that was occurring along the southern border as millions of illegal aliens crossed into the United States.
Since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported more than 8.5 million encounters with illegal aliens along the southern border.
Abbott’s busing program has led to more than 119,400 illegal aliens being transported to various sanctuary cities in the U.S. since it began in April 2022, according to a news release from the Office of Gov. Abbott.
However, the busing of illegal aliens to sanctuary cities has primarily come to a halt due to a lack of unlawful migrants needing to be transported to different states.
Abbott said these crossings have declined due to a “robust, comprehensive approach by Texas,” adding that Biden “stepped and rode on our coattails” while taking credit for the decline.
Despite Abbott taking credit for the decrease in illegal crossings due to the multiple policies he has enacted, some Democratic officials have suggested that Biden’s policies are the reason for the decline.
Jon Ewing, a spokesman for the Denver mayor, discussed the decline in illegal crossings and told Newsweek “The numbers are night and day since President Biden’s order took effect.”
Abbott responded to those claiming victory over Biden’s policies, saying, “Let’s look at the timeline, because you will remember that Joe Biden put his so-called executive order in place where he helped to close the border in June. But if you go back and look at when border crossings began to decline, that was more than a half a year before that, back in last December, and that was after Texas had begun our accelerated operations to deny illegal entry, using the guard, using the razor wire, using the pepper ball,” per News Nation.