Texas Governor Greg Abbott invited Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams to get a firsthand look at the “dire situation” at the southern border.
“As Governor, I invite you to visit our border region to see firsthand the dire situation that only grows more urgent with each passing day, and to meet with the local officials, who like yourselves, realize this matter deserves immediate federal action,” Gov. Abbott wrote in a letter to both mayors on Monday.
The invitation comes after Mayor Adams and Mayor Bowser called for assistance from the federal government in dealing with an influx of migrants from Texas and Arizona that are “straining” their cities’ resources.
Gov. Abbott and Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey have instituted similar programs to offer asylum seekers a voluntary bus trip to D.C. or New York City.
Bowser recently requested an open-ended deployment of at least 150 National Guard members and a “suitable federal location” for a mass housing and processing center in a letter to the White House.
In her letter, Bowser placed some of the blame on Govs. Abbott and Ducey, accusing them of “cruel political gamesmanship” and claiming they “decided to use desperate people to score political points.”
On July 19, Adams called on President Biden to send “additional federal resources immediately” because city shelters were being overfilled with “asylum-seeking migrants.” Adams has labeled both governors’ actions as “wrong.”
The office of Gov. Abbott has responded to Adams, explaining that Texas has not bussed anybody to New York.
D.C. and New York City are both “sanctuary cities,” where unlawful migrants are largely able to live and work without legal repercussions.
In his invitation, Abbott said the new interest from the mayors in the border situation was “a welcome development — especially as the President and his Administration have shown no remorse for their actions nor desire to address the situation themselves.”
Abbott asked that the mayors not only visit the border but also pressure President Joe Biden to secure it “and put an end to this disastrous crisis.”
“President Biden’s reckless open border policies have created a dangerous environment not only for tens of millions of Texans, but for communities all across the nation, including yours,” Abbott wrote.
“We agree that this crisis demands immediate federal action to prevent the flood of deadly fentanyl, now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, the unimaginable horrors caused by human smuggling and trafficking, the known terrorists from entering our country, and the countless other crimes that have been committed by the hundreds of thousands of ‘gotaways’ that the Biden Administration has let slip through,” Abbott continued.
“I look forward to welcoming you to the Texas-Mexico border so that you can see this crisis for yourself,” he added.
New York City Hall dismissed Abbott’s invitation in a statement Monday.
“Instead of a photo-op at the border, we hope Governor Abbott will focus his energy and resources on providing support and resources to asylum seekers in Texas as we have been hard at work doing in New York City,” said Fabien Levy, Adams’ press secretary.
Levy went on to claim, “We continue to work with federal partners to receive additional financial resources immediately, but will never turn our backs on those in need who are arriving here.”
Mayor Bowser has yet to release a statement in response to the invitation.
Abbott directed both mayors to contact his office to make travel arrangements if they intended to visit.
“As law enforcement agents along the Texas-Mexico border respond to thousands of illegal crossings each and every day, putting their lives on the line for Texans and all Americans, the crisis demands the attention of not only the Biden Administration, which is responsible for securing the border, but of leaders across the country,” Abbott wrote.
In the White House’s most recent press release regarding security on the southern border, the Biden administration claimed it had “made significant progress at establishing a well-managed and secure border while also treating people fairly and humanely.”
But Chris Russo, president of the group Texans for Strong Borders, agrees that the Biden administration has failed to uphold its responsibilities “by releasing millions of illegal aliens into the interior of the country with a court date most will never attend.”
Still, he said Govs. Abbott and Ducey could do more by formally declaring the situation at the border an “invasion,” as some border counties have done.
“Texans for Strong Borders PAC and many other organizations have called upon Governor Abbott and Governor Ducey to formally declare the crisis at our southern border an invasion and invoke their powers under Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution to repel this invasion and return illegal aliens directly to Mexico,” Russo told The Dallas Express.
