The third bus transporting illegal immigrants from Texas arrived in Washington on April 15.
The footage showed men, women, and children outside the bus talking in Spanish.
The arrival marked the third consecutive day with a bus reaching Washington from Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott earlier in April directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to accept requests from mayors and county judges who were dealing with illegal immigrants released from federal custody in their jurisdictions and coordinate the travel of the immigrants by bus, plane, “or some other means” to Washington “and other locations outside the state of Texas.”
The division referred inquiries to Abbott’s office, which did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The move was part of a multiprong plan to respond to what both federal and Texas officials project will be an increase in illegal immigration as the Biden administration ends its use of a pandemic-era authority that enabled quick expulsion of aliens.
The administration and many leaders in Congress “have no idea about the chaos they have caused by their open border policies. And they refuse to come down and see firsthand and talk to the people who are really most adversely affected,” Abbott told reporters in Laredo this week.
With the arrival of the illegal immigrants, “Washington is going to have to respond and deal with the same challenges that we’re dealing with,” he added.
Catholic Charities has been providing food and transportation to the immigrants once they arrive in Washington.
“Most of them do have family or friends in the place where they really want to go. We’re happy to help them if they want to stay here. Most are choosing to move on,” Sister Sharlet Wagner, executive director of the Newcomer Network, which the charity runs, told NTD.
Any assistance from states in “maintaining safe, orderly, and humane immigration processes,” Chris Magnus, the commission of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said, “should be carefully coordinated with us.”
