Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has responded to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ criticism of his unlawful migrant busing initiative.
While speaking about New York City’s unlawful migrant crisis at a town hall-style meeting on the Upper West Side on September 6, Adams slammed Abbott’s decision to bus unlawful migrants out of Texas.
He claimed the city’s migrant crisis “started with a madman down in Texas [who] decided he wanted to bus people up to New York City.”
Abbott first began busing unlawful migrants to “sanctuary cities” across the country in April 2022.
Since then, more than 30,000 unlawful migrants have been sent out of Texas in an attempt to provide relief to border cities that are affected by the influx of people, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
While this strategy may provide relief to border cities, these trips also cost taxpayers roughly $1,400 for each rider, according to Texas Scorecard.
On Tuesday, Abbott responded to Adams’ comments on Fox News, saying, “What’s maddening is the fact that in New York and Chicago and D.C. and L.A. and other places, they put out policies self-proclaiming that they’re sanctuary cities, and they love to promote these liberal ideologies until they have to actually live up [to] and apply them.”
“The mayor may have made it to be the mayor of New York, but he could not last a week in Texas,” Abbott quipped.
“They have so few migrants in New York compared to what we deal with every single day,” the Texas governor added. “It’s just outrageous he would make a comment like that.”
Abbott further claimed, “It’s clear the policies of sanctuary cities and letting everybody live for free simply do not work.”
Adams has been discussing New York City’s migrant crisis more recently as well, stating on Sunday that “New York City cannot manage 10,000 people a month with no end in sight” and every city agency will have to reduce its budget to prepare for the “financial tsunami,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
New York City is not the only “sanctuary city” to struggle with the influx of unlawful migrants.
Chicago has reportedly spent nearly $250 million to support the additional 13,000 unlawful migrants that have arrived since August 2022.
The influx has resulted in over 400 unlawful migrants being housed behind a black curtain at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Meanwhile, the city council of Los Angeles, another destination of Texas’ migrant buses, voted to investigate Texas amid concerns that the busing program is violating laws, according to The Dallas Express.