UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a comment from Abbott’s office.
Democrat Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot criticized Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and pledged to empty Texas of all its residents by busing them to the Windy City during a Thursday news conference.
“I’m happy to take and drain Texas of all of its residents. I wouldn’t want to live in a state with a governor like that,” Lightfoot said Thursday at the Salvation Army in Chicago. (RELATED: Democrat Mayor’s Office Says ‘Racism’ Is Behind Abbott’s Effort To Bus Illegal Migrants To The ‘Sanctuary City’)
“I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a state where they are doing everything they can to strip people of their basic rights and let’s not forget about what they’ve done to women and others who were seeking reproductive health care. So we welcome Texans to Chicago and we’ll rent the buses next time to bring them here,” she added.
Abbott announced Wednesday that he’d sent the first bus of illegal migrants to Chicago after sending buses from the border for months to Washington, D.C. and for weeks to New York City. The Windy City has received 75 people from the effort, Lightfoot said.
“Let me say loud and clear to Abbott and his enablers in Texas. With these continued political stunts, Governor Abbott has confirmed what unfortunately many of us had already known that he is a man without any morals, humanity or shame,” Lightfoot said.
“Instead of treating these individuals with respect that they deserve and the due process that our laws require, Governor Abbott chose to inhumanely load them onto buses, send them on a more than 12 hour journey across a country that they don’t know, to drop them off without any regard for what the next steps are,” Lightfoot said.
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Abbott hasn’t communicated about the buses, but “it would’ve been nice” to get prior information, Lightfoot explained. She said she’d contacted the mayors in New York City and Washington, D.C, as well as some in Texas to seek advice on how to support the illegal migrants.
“Governor Abbott’s racist and xenophobic practices of expulsion only have amplified the challenges many of these migrants have experienced on their journey to find a safe place. The governor’s actions are not inhumane, they are unpatriotic. This cannot be who we are as Americans. We have to stand for a different and better set of principles,” Lightfoot said.
Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze called Lightfoot a “hypocrite” for complaining about Abbott’s action and not President Joe Biden’s.
“Where was her outrage and condemnation of President Biden as he flew planeloads of migrants across the country and dropped them in communities in the cover of night? Mayor Lightfoot knows nothing about Texas’ busing strategy and needs to stop with the baseless lies and fearmongering,” Eze told the DCNF.
“If the mayor wants a solution to this humanitarian crisis, she should stop complaining and call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border—something the President continues failing to do,” she added.
The Chicago mayor didn’t just single out Abbott, but also the bus companies Texas chartered.
“I also want to say shame on the bus companies, who frankly are just as complicit in being a part of this indignity. And while there is no way that we can fully make up for the cruelty that our neighbors experienced, what we have and will continue to do is welcome them with open arms,” Lightfoot said.
Local officials said during the news conference that the illegal migrants will be aided in obtaining many public services, including an education, housing, health care and employment opportunities.
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