I would like to say thank you to the governor of Texas 🤣 [View all]

[In It to Win It]

New York Times

Texas’ Busing of Migrants to D.C. Isn’t Having Abbott’s Intended Effect Yet
The plan, meant to rattle President Biden, fits into his strategy for addressing record numbers of border crossings. The migrants said they were grateful for the chartered bus ride.


WASHINGTON — Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas devised a plan this month to rattle the Biden administration by busing migrants from the southwest border to the nation’s capital during a period of record crossings.

So far, though, the plan has not resulted in the chaos that Mr. Abbott predicted.

“I would like to say thank you to the governor of Texas,” Chadrack Mboyo-Bola, 26, said on Thursday morning, after he and 13 other migrants stepped off one of the chartered buses that had provided a 33-hour ride paid for by the State of Texas. Blocks from the U.S. Capitol, they were greeted by volunteers who would help them reach their desired destinations around the country to await their day in immigration court.

Three days earlier, Mr. Mboyo-Bola and his family had crossed into the United States from Mexico along the border in Central Texas after an eight-week journey from Brazil. After spending a day in Border Patrol custody in Eagle Pass, Texas, they and about 20 other new immigrants accepted an offer to board a Washington-bound bus in nearby Del Rio.

Mr. Abbott says his goal is to draw attention to what he and other Republicans describe as the failed immigration policies of President Biden during a period of record crossings along the southwest border.

“The decision and the action to bus people from border communities was to alleviate the strain that’s put on the local communities along the border,” the governor said at a news conference on Thursday. “I’m going to take the border to President Biden.”

Mr. Abbott’s plan, however, happens to fit into the Biden administration’s strategy for responding to the surge in migrant crossings, which officials anticipate will increase sharply once a public health rule imposed during the coronavirus pandemic is lifted at the end of May. The Biden plan includes working with state and local governments and nonprofits to provide support, assistance and transportation to move migrants out of border communities and toward their final destinations in a humane and orderly way.

“In a way, it’s actually perfect,” said Bilal Askaryar, a spokesman for Welcome With Dignity, a collective of about 100 local and national groups that help migrants. “Unintentionally, Governor Abbott sent them to one of the best places in the nation to welcome people.”