Texas will bus illegal immigrants released into the state by the Border Patrol to Washington, D.C., Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday, a move meant to force the Biden administration to address the crisis at the border.
Abbott, a Republican, said that the state has readied 900 charter buses to transport migrants the 1,700 miles from the state’s border with Mexico to the nation’s capital.
“To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hoards 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 during a press conference in Weslaco, Texas. “We are sending them to the United States’s 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.”
Abbott said passengers will be dropped off at the “steps of the United States Capitol.”
The Department of Public Safety will set up 28 roadway inspection sites just north of the border crossing points in a separate effort to interdict commercial trucks attempting to smuggle people through the ports of entry. While all vehicles that pass through the ports of entry are supposed to be inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, many are not physically examined due to a lack of resources.
“Effective immediately, the Texas DPS will conduct enhanced safety inspections of vehicles as they cross the international ports of entry into Texas,” Abbott said. “I know in advance this is going to dramatically slow traffic from Mexico into Texas. It is a byproduct of cartels crossing the border from Mexico into Texas.”
The inspections started Wednesday at 4 p.m. local time, DPS Director Steve McCraw said.
“We don’t need probable cause to do safety commercial vehicle enforcement inspections,” McCraw said. “It’s simply to make sure that those vehicles are safe when they enter Texas.”
Texas has borne the brunt of illegal immigration at the southern border since President Joe Biden took office. Well over half of all migrants encountered trying to enter the U.S. have been stopped in Texas, more than 1 million since Biden took office.
The move comes days after the Biden administration announced it would soon stop immediately expelling illegal immigrants who came across the southern border, as had been the policy since the coronavirus pandemic erupted two years ago. Abbott said that additional actions would be announced next week, ahead of the Biden administration’s decision to end the Title 42 public health policy next month.
Government officials have warned that the reverse in policy will likely lead to a surge of migrants at rates never before seen in U.S. history. As many as 18,000 people are expected to come across the border per day following the May 23 policy reversal.
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At present, 7,000 noncitizens are being stopped while illegally entering the country daily. Jeb Johnson, Homeland Security secretary during the Obama administration, once described 1,000 apprehensions per day as a crisis level.
