Gov. Greg Abbott has bused more than 50,000 unlawful migrants to major U.S. cities across the country, according to a report.
Abbott’s busing plan has aimed to reduce pressure on Texas border towns and raise awareness of the crisis at the border by transporting incoming migrants across the country, dispatching more than 1,130 buses since April 2022, the governor’s office told Axios.
The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard are conducting the operation as part of Operation Lone Star, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The milestone comes after unlawful migrant encounters at the southern border hit an all-time record of 260,000 in September, according to Fox News.
President Joe Biden’s response to the crisis has been somewhat contradictory. Earlier in the month, he claimed that border walls do not work, seemingly contradicting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said there is “an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States.”
The Biden administration recently announced it approved additional border wall funding and resumed deportations to Venezuela.
Abbott visited New York City last month to discuss his busing operation, which has sent 16,000 migrants to the Big Apple.
“What you’re dealing with in New York, what you are seeing and witnessing in the state is a tiny fraction of what is happening every single day in the state of Texas,” Abbott said, per KXAN.
Abbott blamed the border crisis on Biden, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s a crisis. It’s chaotic, and it must stop,” Abbott said. “Texas is going to continue to use every tool we can to secure the border the best that we can.”
Relatedly, hotels in Massachusetts canceled some veterans’ reservations this month ahead of the Army-Navy football game, using the rooms to house an influx of migrants instead, as reported by The Dallas Express. At least 70 reservations were canceled, according to CBS.