Texas Gov. Greg Abbott revealed more than 11,000 illegal immigrants have been bused to New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., this year.
Abbott, a Republican, wrote on Twitter that his busing strategy provides “much-needed relief to overwhelmed border communities” and has transported 8,100 illegal aliens to D.C., 2,600 to New York City, and 675 to Chicago.
The City of Chicago received another bus load filled with illegal immigrants on Tuesday, officials confirmed to local media. Seventy-four new arrivals were transported to Chicago from Texas in the latest round.
And last week, Abbott sent buses of illegal aliens to the Washington home of Vice President Kamala Harris. The vice president has yet to issue a public response to the drop-off.
It comes as New York City Mayor Eric Adams told CNN that about a half-dozen buses filled with illegal aliens arrived in the city on Saturday and Sunday. Adding that those individuals were transported from Texas, Adams again criticized Abbott’s program and threatened unspecified legal action.
On Sunday, Adams told the network that his “legal team is looking at what legal challenges we could do with Texas.”
“We believe there’s some options we have because when you involuntarily place someone on a bus, we believe that actually skates the law,” he added.
DeSantis Office Responds to Suit
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office responded to a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants who were transported to Martha’s Vineyard, saying they voluntarily went on the flight and signed a consent form.
The lawsuit (pdf) was filed by a pro-migration organization on behalf of three individuals and alleged that DeSantis engaged in a “fraudulent” and “illegal” scheme to coerce the illegal immigrants to board the flight.
“The transportation of the immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard was done on a voluntary basis. The immigrants were homeless, hungry, and abandoned … and these activists didn’t care about them then,” DeSantis’s office said in a statement to news outlets this week.
Activists are using these illegal immigrants for “political theatre” and if they “spent even a fraction of this time and effort at the border, perhaps some accountability would be brought to the Biden administration’s reckless border policies,” the statement added.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also criticized the suit and noted those individuals “came into this country illegally” and are now using U.S. laws “to sue an elected governor, to sue a state.”
“Just think about that. They just got here. They’re not even here legally,” Rubio told Fox News on Tuesday. “They didn’t enter the country the proper way. And they’re immediately in court demanding rights and claims under our laws. This is outrageous.”
In the suit, the illegal migrants were allegedly coerced to board the planes relocating them from Texas with allegedly false promises of housing, work, schooling, and other aid.
Last week, about 50 illegal aliens who reportedly originated from Venezuela were sent to Martha’s Vineyard, a Massachusetts island that is popular with wealthy Democrat elites. Hours later, the governor of the state activated the National Guard and transported them to a military base on Cape Cod.
DeSantis, a Republican, said that the move was designed to highlight what he says is an ongoing and escalating crisis along the U.S.–Mexico border and to say that Florida is not a sanctuary state.
From The Epoch Times
