Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the eighth bus filled with illegal immigrants that were released into his state is heading to Washington, D.C.
Abbott, a Republican, said he will continue to send buses with illegal aliens to the nation’s capital because he is “bringing the border to” President Joe Biden, whom he has blamed for a surge in illegal immigration since last year.
“We will continue the bussing process every single day for the reason that I think you mentioned earlier on. And that is the Biden administration has been dumping off these migrants by the hundreds in local communities that do not have the ability to take care or deal with,” the governor told reporters on Tuesday night.
Those illegal immigrants, he added, “are being dropped off—and as opposed to them being there in these small communities or the small communities having to spend money dealing with it, we decided to bus them to Washington, D.C.”
“This busing process is going to continue. I want you and the audience to know exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing,” the Texas governor told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Monday night. “The Biden administration, they were dropping off illegal immigrants just [into] small towns on the border … we’re not going to allow that to happen.”
If his plan to send illegal immigrants to Washington doesn’t work, Abbott added that “Delaware looks like a great location.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters several weeks ago that Abbott’s busing strategy is a “publicity stunt.” She also questioned his authority.
“His own office admits that a migrant would need to voluntarily be transported, and he can’t compel them to because, again, enforcement of our country’s immigration laws lies with the federal government, not a state,” Psaki said.
It comes as some Democratic Congress members have increasingly tried to distance themselves from Biden’s border policies. Earlier this month, the White House announced it would end Title 42, a federal health rule that turned away illegal immigrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in late May.
But several vulnerable Democrats signaled they don’t support rescinding the policy, or at the very least, they’ve demanded that the administration come up with a suitable replacement.
“Right now, we have a crisis on our southern border. Right now, this administration does not have a plan. I warned them about this months ago,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who is up for reelection this year, told Fox News earlier in April. “It’s going to be, to be honest, it’s going to be a crisis on top of a crisis.”
