The mayors of Democrat-led sanctuary cities are experiencing a gut check. After years of virtue-signaling efforts to shame border security hawks into just accepting illegal immigration as a part of everyday life, well, now they are getting the opportunity to put up or shut up. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is bussing illegal migrants from the Texas – Mexico border to sanctuary cities.

So far, the Democrat mayors have failed their gut checks. All three cities that have received buses of illegal migrants are lead by mayors who say one thing and do another. The mayors of Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago now complain and beg for help from the federal government in handling a very small number of migrants, compared to the hundreds of thousands that Texas and Arizona encounter each month. Those three cities are large metropolitan areas with resources to house, feed, and attend to the needs of illegal migrants who show up in their cities. That is not the case with the small border communities in Texas. The reason for Abbott’s political “stunt” is to bring attention to the Biden border crisis.

Abbott sent the first buses to Washington, D.C. for a reason. He wanted to put Biden and Congress on the spot. Then he sent buses to NYC and suddenly the largest city in the country is just overwhelmed with a total of about 2,000 additional people in the city. Imagine that. Many of the border communities in Texas are smaller than the boroughs in New York yet they are expected to manage the thousands of migrants they encounter each week while Mayor Adams goes before television cameras and complains that his city is being overwhelmed. What a hypocrite.

Chicago was sanctuary city number three on Governor Abbott’s list. The name-calling from Mayor Lightfoot is fierce. Three more buses arrived Wednesday from Texas. Efforts are being made to encourage volunteers to donate clothes, shoes, hygiene products, books for children, and so on. Somehow I think the country’s third largest city will be able to handle the basic necessities for its new residents. Spare us the moral indignation, Mayor Lightfoot. Since she questioned Abbott’s religious compass, maybe she should look at her own.

Get prepared, you other sanctuary cities. Buses may be on their way to you soon. Governor Abbott has been very clear that he isn’t backing down. He has a list of cities that are declared to be sanctuary cities so it is only fair that they share in the burden. Other cities have taken notice and are bracing for what may come.

Officials in Seattle and Washington state — both of which have made a point of welcoming refugees and immigrants in the past — say they aren’t aware of any buses heading their way, but they’ve started talking about what to do if it happens.

“…[W]e have been talking with our counterparts in cities that have been the target of Governor Abbott’s program, including New York City, to learn about best practices,” Hamdi Mohamed, director of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, said in a statement to Axios.

Staffers in Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s office are also “keeping an eye on the issue,” spokesperson Mike Faulk told Axios in an email.

Philadelphia and Boston are also making lists and checking them twice.

Philadelphia has not received any buses from Texas to date and doesn’t expect to receive any notice if they are coming, said Kevin Lessard, a spokesperson for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

“The city is inventorying existing resources should those seeking safe refuge find their way to Philadelphia,” Lessard said.

A spokesperson for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told Axios her office is “watching the situation at the southern border very closely and already preparing for new asylum seekers to arrive in Boston” and is in conversation with state officials, nonprofits and hospitals.

As Axios reports today, all of this is being done under the umbrella of Operation Lone Star. Abbott began Operation Lone Star to slow border crossings. Texas taxpayers are footing the bill for its operations. That includes the bus rides for the illegal migrants. So far, D.C. has received 7,600 illegal migrants since April, NYC has received about 1,900. Chicago received 95 illegal migrants in the first two buses. Compare those numbers to the two million apprehensions on the southern border since Joe Biden moved into the White House.

The City of El Paso is bussing illegal migrants out of Texas on its own effort, separate from Operation Lone Star. They are working with FEMA for reimbursement of their costs.

The mayors of the sanctuary cities don’t utter a peep when DHS busses or flies illegal migrants away from the southern border and to cities across the country. There has been no moral indignation over that, even as planes land in the middle of the night in airports in cities where local officials have not been notified. I don’t recall Mayors Bowser, Adams, or Lightfoot weighing in on any of that.

Abbott isn’t saying which city is next on his list. There are still plenty to choose from. There is no shortage of illegal migrants happy to accept free bus rides to cities they are trying to get to, food and water included.