The mayor of New York City is standing in front of television cameras every day to slam Texas Governor Greg Abbott for bussing illegal migrants to his city. The buses are paid for by Texas taxpayers and the goal is to highlight the Biden border crisis. The indignant mayor doesn’t mention Arizona Governor Doug Ducey in his rants about how anti-American and unpatriotic Abbott is for moving illegal migrants away from the overcrowding at the border. Interestingly enough, he also has not mentioned that the City of El Paso is sending buses to NYC, too, and being reimbursed by FEMA.

Funny how that happens. The Biden administration is paying for buses from El Paso to bring illegal migrants to New York City through a grant program. FEMA covers the travel costs, according to El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino.

“The travel costs for migrants are covered through FEMA’s emergency food and shelter grant. The City/OEM submits for reimbursement on a quarterly basis as the process dictates,” D’Agostino told the DCNF.

“With the goal to provide for the safety of the migrants from the elements and to preserve the community’s transitory hospitality shelter capacities so they may continue to serve our homeless community, OEM [Office of Emergency Management] has sponsored and provided transportation services for migrants out of El Paso, which is reimbursable through FEMA,” he said.

My, my. That sounds so reasonable, doesn’t it? Contrast that to the language used in describing Abbott and Ducey’s actions. The migrants have been called political pawns. Eric Adams called the governors “cowards” for sending the buses to his city, as well as to Washington, D.C. Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C. even said that she thought the migrants were being “tricked” into getting on the buses. All of the migrants who have been transported from Texas to NYC or D.C. have signed papers stating that they are voluntarily going to either city. They choose to go and either stay in the city or travel on from there to another location. It’s free transportation for them and they are happy for it.

In July, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the governors “shameful”. Are city officials in El Paso shameful now, too?

“We believe it’s shameful that some governors are using migrants as a political tool, as a political play, when we should be making sure that we’re doing everything that we can to help folks who are coming into this process in a legal way and making sure that we do this in a safe way and respectful way. And I think it is shameful that that is happening,” Jean-Pierre said at the time.

There have been four buses sent to NYC so far from El Paso. The city is sending specific groups of migrants who have no sponsors or means to travel. The City of El Paso sponsors their transportation. A bus was chartered for 35 Venezuelans last week. The migrants are happy to have the opportunity.

“It’s a journey that we never expected to experience,” Roxeli, a Venezuelan migrant, said aboard an El Paso United Charters bus heading to New York City on Tuesday. “It was a rough environment. We had to cross oceans, rivers, jungles – countries where perhaps we weren’t welcome.”

Around her, fellow smiling migrants settled into their seats, ate pizza and sandwiches provided by volunteers, and prayed for their safety during the next leg of their journeys.

“For a better future for our children, we’re capable of getting anywhere,” said Roxeli, whom El Paso Matters is only identifying by first name as she is fleeing violence and fears for her safety. Her comments were captured by the Opportunity Center for the Homeless, which has been caring for an increasing number of unhoused migrants in El Paso.

Organizations that help illegal migrants think the solution to putting in place “a living, breathing Statue of Liberty” is for faith-based communities throughout the country to take in one charter bus each week, then the “hospitality issue” would be solved. The problem with liberal reasoning, though, is that illegal migration shouldn’t be normalized. It is not the responsibility of local communities to take in illegal migrants and provide the resources they need. That is the responsibility of the federal government. Most importantly, it is the responsibility of the federal government to secure the border, which Joe Biden has chosen not to do.

Ruben Garcia, the founder of Annunciation House in El Paso, which has been serving migrants for 40 years, said previous bus charters from El Paso were used to move migrants to churches in Dallas and Denver, which are major transportation hubs. From there, it was easier for migrants to arrange transportation to join family and friends in the United States.

On June 21, the Office of Emergency Management chartered a bus to send 50 migrants to Faith Forward, an alliance of Dallas religious leaders, Garcia said.

He said faith-based groups are crucial to assisting the growing number of migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.

“If faith communities in the interior of the U.S. would all be willing to receive one charter bus every week or two, there would be no hospitality issue all along the U.S. border with Mexico. We wouldn’t have to blindly send chartered buses to D.C., New York, and Miami. In other words we would not play politics with human lives and instead have a living, breathing Statue of Liberty,” Garcia said.

The person playing politics with human lives is Joe Biden. He thinks he is being a great humanitarian by allowing the border to be porous and ignoring the floods of illegal migrants entering the country outside of legal ports of entry. Instead, he has created a humanitarian crisis. Drug cartels and human traffickers control the border now. There have been over two million apprehensions on the border since Biden took office and ended Trump’s effective policies and agreements only nineteen months ago. The Biden border crisis is the result of a dereliction of duty.

It was malarkey from the start when Eric Adams and Muriel Bowser protested buses arriving in their cities filled with illegal migrants. They brag about leading sanctuary cities until illegal migrants actually show up. The Biden administration and DHS has been flying and busing illegal migrants from the border to cities across the country since the Biden border crisis began. The mayors are silent about that. Biden’s border crisis has made every state a border state. American taxpayers are picking up the tab.