Texas is transporting illegal immigrants to the nation’s capital without properly communicating with the federal government, the head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on April 14.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “is taking actions to move migrants without adequately coordinating with the federal government and local border communities,” Chris Magnus, CBP’s commissioner, said in a statement.
“CBP has always worked closely with and supported border communities in Texas, many of which CBP personnel call home. We all have a shared interest in maintaining safe, orderly, and humane immigration processes, and assistance from the state should be carefully coordinated with us,” he added.
The Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) referred comment to Abbott’s office, which did not respond to requests for comment.
“Texas will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border,” Abbott said in a briefing on April 6, shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with backing from the White House, announced the scheduled end of the Title 42 order.
In addition to stepping up inspections of vehicles as they go through ports of entry into Texas and deploying additional law enforcement officers to the border—and later striking deals with Mexican officials to implement similar measures—Abbott directed the TDEM to transport immigrants who were released from federal custody to Washington via bus or plane.
Noting that the Biden administration is projecting a jump in illegal immigration once Title 42 ends in May, Abbott in a letter to TDEM Chief W. Nim Kidd, asserted the government “has no real plan for addressing this unprecedented surge of illegal aliens but may resort to releasing groups of them in Texas communities whose resources are already overwhelmed.”
“Texans cannot continue to shoulder the burdens imposed by open-border advocates in other parts of the country,” he wrote, adding that TDEM should aim to help local officials “cope with this latest escalation of the Biden border disaster.”
The immigrants must choose to be transported, but some already have.
The groups, mostly comprised of men, took the offer to get closer to their final destinations, according to Catholic Charities, which provided them with food and bus tickets. Many of the immigrants continued traveling after arriving in Washington and being given cell phones by officials wearing khakis and black shirts, similar to garb sometimes worn by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE referred comment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE and CBP.
A DHS spokesman told The Epoch Times via email that all immigrants who aren’t expelled under Title 42 are placed in immigration proceedings. Some of the immigrants are designated for removal but others are given a notice to appear in court at a future date and are allowed to go anywhere in the United States.
“Through its Southwest Border Coordination Center, DHS is executing carefully designed plans to manage the processing and transport of noncitizens arriving at the border,” the spokesman said.
