Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Friday that Texas has sent more than 500 buses of unlawful migrants to “sanctuary cities” in blue states.
The transportation operation has been conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard under the umbrella of Operation Lone Star.
Gov. Abbott has contended that the busing operation provides relief to municipalities located along the Texas-Mexico border overwhelmed by thousands of unlawful migrants crossing the border into the U.S.
Abbott announced more than 10,000 unlawful migrants have been bused to Washington D.C., 8,200 to New York City, 2,600 to Chicago, 1,600 to Philadelphia, 210 to Denver, and just over 40 to Los Angeles.
The cities chosen as destinations are self-pronounced sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities are municipalities that limit their cooperation with the federal government’s effort to enforce immigration laws, allowing unlawful migrants to remain there with a lesser chance of being deported.
Gov. Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have both sent large numbers of migrants to sanctuary cities to relieve Texas and Florida state and city services of rising processing and caretaking costs.
Despite implying that sanctuary cities would be open to large-scale resettlement of unlawful migrants, left-wing elected officials have recoiled from the two right-wing governors’ strategy of transporting migrants.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has harshly attacked Govs. Abbott and DeSantis for transporting unlawful migrants to blue states and blue cities.
Likening the transportation operations to human smuggling, Newsom suggested that Gov. DeSantis should face kidnapping charges on Twitter.
“[Ron DeSantis] you small, pathetic man. This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?”
However, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, previously an advocate of amnesty, shifted his stance to favoring tougher border security after thousands of unlawful migrants overwhelmed New York City’s services.
“There’s no more room,” said Mayor Adams at a January press conference addressing the unlawful migrant influx into New York.