Governor Abbott is Busing Fewer Illegal Aliens to Sanctuary Cities

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Governor Greg Abbott is busing fewer illegal aliens from Texas to sanctuary cities around the country. 

Why is that? This is because there are legal challenges in those cities. Take New York City, for example. Abbott has bused the largest number of illegal aliens to that sanctuary city. 

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NYC Mayor Eric Adams put restrictions on bus companies that transport illegal aliens to the area. He ordered them to drop off the passengers in designated areas during normal weekday business hours. That was in December. In January, NYC started suing bus companies when they began dropping off illegal aliens in northern New Jersey during nighttime hours. The illegals would take a quick train ride to Penn Station in Manhattan from New Jersey.

Court records in New York show that nine bus companies have agreed to stop busing illegal aliens from the Texas Division of Emergency Management while the case moves forward. 

NYC wants $708M from the bus companies. City officials claim the bus companies are a part of a political scheme with Abbott. They allege that the governor wants to shift the costs of providing social services to illegal aliens from Texas to New York City.  

Why wouldn't Governor Abbott want to move illegal aliens out of Texas to let sanctuary cities take care of them? Texas isn't a sanctuary state. The governor doesn't support President Biden's mishandling of border security from day one of his term in office. Abbott has continually asked for resources to manage the catastrophe Biden created along the southern border yet adequate resources are denied to Texas and other border states. Biden deliberately chose to open the southern border and then ignore the consequences. 

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“Texas has made a determination that it will weaponize the movement of people in order to change national policy,” attorney Steven Banks, who is representing the New York Department of Social Services, told Judge Mary Rosado of the New York Supreme Court at a hearing last month.


The bus companies have argued that the city should be suing Abbott or Texas instead of trying to bankrupt them.

But Banks has said he’s going after the bus companies because they are liable for carrying out the “scheme,” even if it's directed by Abbott.

“Just last month, Gov. Abbott, the architect of the scheme, came to New York to say that the costs-shifting plan to close the borders will continue,” Banks said about Abbott’s April speech in New York City.

Yes. In April, Governor Abbott told New York Republicans that he will continue busing illegal aliens to sanctuary cities until we get a new president. Why should Texas have to bear the burden of Biden's incompetence in border security? It is Biden who has the scheme - he is using illegal immigration to fundamentally change America. This is all deliberate. Abbott's "scheme" brought attention to Biden's border crisis and the fact that now every state is a border state. 

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Other sanctuary cities are putting up legal challenges to stop the buses from coming to them. 

The busing program has also hit barriers in other cities. In November, Chicago created intercity bus rules and application forms that require bus operators to obtain approval before loading or unloading passengers. Bus companies have sued, but the number of passengers going to the Windy City dropped from about 30,000 in 2023 to just 6,000 since January.

Meanwhile, Abbott’s office released new busing numbers last week that showed that no additional passengers have been dropped off in Philadelphia, Los Angeles or Washington, D.C., since January.

Abbott continues to justify busing illegal aliens out of Texas. The fact is that there are fewer illegal aliens right now at the Texas border. Mexico has been more cooperative in managing the floods of migrants traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border. Texas has been aggressive in putting up fences and a wall along the border - the only state to put up a border wall. “Texas’ border busing mission provides vital relief to our overwhelmed border communities,” Abbott said earlier this year.

In some areas along the Texas border, there has been a 41% decrease in illegal immigration. That is good news for Texas. The truth is that a shift has happened - illegal aliens are moving west to Arizona and California. Those border states are seeing large increases in illegal border crossers now. 

As long as the southern border is wide open, they will come. They know that they will likely be allowed to stay once they get here. Nothing has changed. It may get worse as election day grows closer. There is a rush to cross the border before the presidential election in November. They know that Trump will secure the border and deport those who are here illegally. He did it once, he'll do it again. As Governor Abbott acknowledged, nothing changes until we get a new president. 



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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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