The Texas governor’s office has accused New York City Mayor Eric Adams of dodging the immigration crisis by sending staff to the southern border in his place as part of a “secret” trip.
A delegation of New York City officials made an unannounced trip to the U.S.-Mexico border over the Labor Day weekend, stopping in the Eagle Pass and Del Rio region, where more migrants are being encountered attempting to enter the United States than any other part of the 2,000-mile international boundary.
But Adams, a first-term Democrat, stayed home — a move that a spokeswoman for Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) lambasted, given the state’s offer to host Adams and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser for a comprehensive tour of the border and to see the impact of the influx of up to 6,000 illegal immigrants being apprehended in Texas daily for the past 18 months.
“Governor Abbott’s invitation is still open for Mayor Adams to come visit our southern border and see firsthand the devastating impacts of the Biden-made crisis on border towns smaller than a NYC borough — instead of sending his staffers on a secret trip to Texas,” Abbott press secretary Renae Eze told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
LIGHTFOOT ATTACKS ABBOTT’S CHRISTIANITY FOR BUSING MIGRANTS TO CHICAGO
Abbott had invited the Democratic mayors of New York and Washington to travel down and observe how mass releases of migrants into border communities are not only affecting Texas but also other parts of America as states like Texas provide buses for migrants to travel to both northern cities. More than half of all migrants apprehended by Border Patrol agents after illegally walking across the border are released from custody and allowed to remain in the U.S. through court proceedings — scheduled five to eight years down the line.
“As Governor, I invite you to visit our border region to see firsthand the dire situation that only grows more urgent with each passing day, and to meet with the local officials, who like yourselves, realize this matter deserves immediate federal action,” the Texas Republican wrote in the Aug. 1 letter. “The crisis demands the attention of not only the Biden Administration, which is responsible for securing the border, but of leaders across the country.”
Among those in attendance were NYC officials from the immigrant and intergovernmental affairs offices, according to the New York Daily News. Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Adams, told the New York Daily News that the trip was meant to give officials a better understanding of border operations and specifically to see if the state was coercing people into boarding buses bound for New York. The group toured a massive set of tents outside Eagle Pass that was set up as an overflow facility for detaining up to 1,000 illegal immigrants at a time.
Levy claimed Abbott’s office “has been unresponsive” to its inquiries about its busing operation, prompting the in-person visit.
“We’ve sent members of the team down on a fact-finding mission to hear directly from folks on the ground along the southern border and get the real answers we’re not getting from Texas, including whether they are sending asylum-seekers to New York City even if they prefer to go elsewhere,” Levy told the Washington Examiner in a statement Wednesday.
“Here in New York, we will continue to welcome asylum-seekers with open arms as we learn more about the process, meet with real partners, and see firsthand the reportedly inhumane conditions in which asylum-seekers are being subjected to by the state of Texas,” Levy said.
It is not clear if the New York delegation was able to visit where migrants board the buses and the city has not shared its takeaways from the visit.
While in Texas, the group met with “friendly” local Democratic lawmakers, the Daily News reported.
The northeastern Democrats jumped into the immigration debate in late July, concerned about the number of illegal immigrants choosing to board more than 150 state-funded buses from Texas and Arizona that travel to Washington. Since then, more than 10,000 illegal immigrants have been dropped off in New York and the district last week. Abbott also began offering free bus rides to Chicago.
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All three cities are sanctuary zones, which means local officials will not cooperate with federal law enforcement attempting to enforce immigration laws. For example, an illegal immigrant arrested after a crime such as robbery may be held in a local jail but not be flagged to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or transferred into federal custody to face an immigration judge who could rule that the person be returned to his or her country of origin.
