Texas and Arizona have transported thousands of illegal immigrants from the US-Mexico border to Washington, D.C. on at least 79 buses, officials told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
More than 2,500 illegal immigrants who were released into the United States by President Joe Biden’s Border Patrol have chosen to board 79 state-funded buses bound for the nation’s capital, spokespeople told the outlet.
“These people are wanting to go somewhere else. They’re not wanting to stay in Arizona,” said Morgan Carr, spokeswoman for Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ). “From what we’re seeing, they’re all primarily [headed to] the East Coast.”
Texas has sent over 2,000 illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C. on 65 buses since mid-April, whereas Arizona has transported 523 illegal immigrants on 14 buses since mid-May.
Twenty-five percent of the illegal immigrants who crossed the border into Arizona before hopping on a bus to Washington, D.C. said their final destination is New York. Other popular destinations include New Jersey and Florida.
Nearly 70 percent of the illegal immigrants who started their journey in Arizona were originally from Colombia. Another 15 percent were from Peru and eight illegal immigrants were from Russia.
“This is a problem caused by Washington. We’re bringing it to Washington, and we expect Washington to foot the bill. We’re going to send them a bill,” Ducey spokesman C.J. Karamargin told the Examiner last month.
In April, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to continue sending buses filled with illegal immigrants to D.C. as long as the Biden administration continues “dumping off these migrants by the hundreds in local communities that do not have the ability to take care of or deal with these migrants that are being dropped off.”
“If Biden will not come to the border, we’re sending the border to Biden and his administration so that they can begin to grapple with the challenges that we’re dealing with,” he said at the time, adding, “But also, we will be looking for other locations like Delaware, Biden’s home state. … The people in Delaware are going to see what the people in Texas are having to grapple with.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is reportedly planning to follow Texas and Arizona’s lead, transporting illegal immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to cities across the United States in an effort to relieve overcrowding along the border, internal documents obtained by NBC News revealed last week.
The DHS’ new strategy – reportedly referred to the effort as the “Abbott plan” – uses federal funds to transport illegal immigrants farther into the U.S. where they can live as they await immigration proceedings. According to NBC, the destinations include Los Angeles, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Houston and Dallas, Texas; as well as other cities.
