As part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to protest federal immigration policies amidst the present border crisis, the third bus of migrants arrived in Washington, D.C., around 8 a.m. Friday.
As reported by The Dallas Express, the first bus arrived in Washington D.C. on April 13, carrying numerous migrants to Washington, D.C., under the direction of the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). The bus came to a halt just a few blocks from the Capitol.
On Thursday, April 14, a second bus arrived in D.C. just before 4:30 a.m. with fourteen migrants.
One man told Fox News that he first flew to Mexico from his home in Colombia and then crossed the Rio Grande into the United States. The man, who identified himself as Juan, plans to go to New York to join friends. He said he wants to be a barber.
Governor Abbott has stated that he is using this plan to counteract the federal government’s refusal to enforce immigration law, most recently through its cancellation of Title 42.
Abbott’s instructions to TDEM were to transport any willing migrant to the nation’s capital city. People from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have elected to take the 1,700-mile-long trip from Texas to Washington D.C.
According to TDEM, the governor’s plan is working.
Officials from many U.S. border towns that initially called out for help – from the Rio Grande Valley to Terrell County – told Fox News on Monday that the federal government has stopped releasing unlawful migrants in their areas since Abbott’s declaration in a press conference on April 6.
The governor’s legal power to transport busloads of migrants to the United States Capitol is still being debated. Arizona vs. the United States, a Supreme Court case from 2012, prohibits states from enacting their own immigration policy.
Abbott holds that the federal government is not doing enough to find a solution.
“We are sending them to the United States Capitol 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,” said Abbott in the press conference.