Texas plans to begin bussing migrants caught crossing illegally into the U.S. via the Lone Star state to Washington, D.C., Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced on Wednesday.
The move follows more than a year’s worth of record-breaking encounters with illegal migrants along the Texas-Mexico border and Abbott’s unanswered pleas for the Biden administration to step up enforcement.
The announcement also comes after the administration announced this week it would be ending Title 42, a Trump-era rule that allowed for rapid deportation of nearly all migrants who crossed illegally during the pandemic.
Abbott announced a number of new actions his administration plans to take in expanding Operation Lone Star, a state effort to curb illegal immigration.
“With the Biden administration ending Title 42 expulsions in May, Texas will be taking its own unprecedented actions this month to do what no state in America has ever done in the history of this country to better secure our state, as well as our nation,” Abbott said.
One of those actions will be the state hiring private bus companies to take the migrants to the nation’s capital.
“To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed with hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden administration, Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden administration to Washington, D.C.,” Abbott said.
“We are sending them to the United States capital where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border,” he continued.
Abbott also announced “enhanced public safety inspection of vehicles” crossing from Mexico into Texas at ports of entry.
The new policy will necessarily “dramatically slow traffic from Mexico into Texas,” Abbott admitted, but he said the new process is necessary to curb cartel traffic flowing from Mexico into Texas.
“Those two strategies are in addition to announcing the following actions to further deter illegal immigrants, including deploying boat blockades at appropriate regions in the Rio Grande River, deploying razor wire at low-water crossings in high traffic areas, creating container blockades to drive people away from low water crossings,” Abbott said, adding that he will be announcing more measures next week.
The Texas announcement comes after a number of GOP-controlled states filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its plans to scrap Title 42.
“Missouri, Arizona, and Louisiana filed suit against the Biden Administration for rescinding Title 42 amid one of the worst border crises in this country’s history. Title 42 is a crucial tool for controlling the influx of illegal aliens at our Southern border,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a statement on Monday.
“Time and again, the Biden Administration has failed to act to secure our Southern border and have terminated successful programs like Title 42 and the ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy,” it continued.
“Missouri has been a leader in pushing back on the Biden Administration’s failure at the border, and we filed suit against the cancellation of the ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy and also filed suit to force the Biden Administration to build the Southwest border wall. If the Biden Administration won’t take proactive steps to secure our border and protect our citizenry, we certainly will,” he added.
KNOW MORE: