AUSTIN, Texas — The state of Texas is allowing the public to donate money to cover the millions of dollars it has spent busing illegal immigrants released from federal custody at the border to New York City and Washington, D.C.
The state has collected $118,297 as of July 22, a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly $7 million in receipts that Texas had received from busing and security contractors in mid-July.
The same state website soliciting donations for busing is asking donors to support Gov. Greg Abbott’s border wall projects. Since Abbott announced his intention to finish wall projects that were incomplete when President Donald Trump left office, donors have pledged $55 million to the project. As of August, 2 miles of wall are under construction.
Texas makes up 1,250 miles of the 2,000-mile southern border. More than half of the 1.7 million people apprehended trying to enter the United States illegally from Mexico between ports of entry since the start of fiscal 2022 last October were stopped in Texas.
Illegal immigration at the southern border began to rise to historic highs last March. Federal law enforcement up and down the 2,000-mile southern border went from encountering fewer than 75,000 noncitizens in December 2020 to topping 150,000 (even 200,000) each month over the past year, according to federal data.
In April, Abbott said the state would make buses available for migrants to get free rides to Washington in an effort to alleviate pressure on small border communities and regional transportation networks as several thousand people were released into communities daily.
More than 150 buses traveling from Arizona and Texas have transported approximately 6,000 migrants to Washington between mid-April and mid-July, the Washington Examiner reported last month. The operation has collectively cost both border states millions of taxpayer dollars, including $6.8 million in Texas to date.
The state of Texas has expanded its operation, recently adding New York City to its list of destinations in an effort to put pressure on sanctuary-city Democrats — especially Mayor Eric Adams.
“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Abbott said at the time.
While no buses have gone to New York until now, Adams inaccurately claimed in late July that Texas and Arizona were busing migrants into his city, which is a sanctuary zone and is viewed by illegal immigrants as a safe place to reside because local police do not cooperate with federal immigration police.
Adams and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, also a Democrat, said in July that they were concerned about the number of illegal immigrants coming in from border states.
Abbott said last week that the several thousand people the state has bused to Washington pales in comparison to what his communities in Texas, including Eagle Pass, Del Rio, and McAllen, have faced for the past 16 months. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star a year ago, sending 10,000 state National Guard soldiers and troopers to help overwhelmed federal Border Patrol agents. To date, the state has spent $4 billion to fund border security efforts that Abbott has said the federal government ought to be handling.
Abbott will face Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke in November. According to June polls, the incumbent has an average advantage of 6 percentage points over O’Rourke.
* Article from: The Washington Examiner
