As part of a Texas governor’s effort, another bus dropped off immigrants at Vice President Kamala Harris’s Washington home. Greg Abbott will give the Biden administration a glimpse of the effects of mass immigration releases in border communities.
About 50 people walked out of a bus that was stopped outside Harris’s Washington estate. Harris and former vice presidents live in a large white house located on the grounds at the Naval Observatory, about three miles from the White House.
A man who arrived in Washington on Thursday said that he had a good experience aboard and was treated well throughout the trip.
This is the fourth time Abbott has directed buses toward Harris’s front door. The majority of buses from Texas have traveled to the U.S. Capitol via a drop-off at Union Station. Volunteers from the international humanitarian aid organization SAMU First Response were present at the site this morning. It is unclear how they learned that the bus was coming.
Harris didn’t leave her home to welcome the immigrants.
Abbott declared in May that he would bring President Joe Biden’s border crisis to his hometown and offer free transportation to Washington. He dropped off immigrants just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol. Later, he expanded the busing service to New York City and Chicago. The busing operation has been in existence for six months and is not expected to stop.
Biden was inaugurated 20 months ago. Since then, the number of noncitizens who illegally entered the country from Mexico has increased from below 50,000 per month over the past decade to between 150,000- 230,000 every month.
Only half of the illegal immigrants arrested are turned away or removed at the border. The remainder is released and told to appear in court for unlawful entry proceedings — a federal offense — many years later.
The Biden administration has decided not to hold people in court and has not increased immigration court operations to the border like the Trump administration. Since March 2021, thousands of people have been released by the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Many border towns are struggling because of the release. They don’t have buses that connect to major cities and airports.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, also followed Abbott’s lead and started offering free bus rides from Washington.
Republicans maintain that all three cities are “sanctuary zones” that have for years vowed to protect illegally residing people in the United States. They should therefore be open to accepting the buses of immigrants.
Abbott was rebuked by the mayors who called for federal assistance and state support to temporarily house people arriving in their cities.
Few immigrants are allowed to travel on the Arizona or Texas buses. A large number of immigrants buy plane tickets and bus tickets to other areas of the country, where they have family or friends. Nonprofit groups are eligible for reimbursement from the federal government to cover some of the costs involved in helping immigrants book their tickets.
