Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office blasted the Biden administration for its “hypocritical” comments that efforts to bus illegal migrants to Democrat-run cities are incentivizing border crossings in a Thursday statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Instead of their hypocritical complaints about Texas providing much-needed relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities, the Biden administration needs to step up and do their jobs to secure the border — something they continue failing to do,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze told the DCNF. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘A Nexus To Terrorism’: Illegals Flagged As Potential National Security Risks Soared Nearly 600% In Last Year)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Chris Magnus told the Los Angeles Times Thursday that the busing efforts by Republican governors, like Abbott, are incentivizing illegal border crossings.
“It’s safe to say what’s going on is a pull factor, which is somewhat ironic given the criticism from some of these same governors involved in this about various pull factors that they claim already exist,” Magnus said.
Republican Govs. Abbott and Doug Ducey of Arizona have been busing illegal migrants across the U.S. for months. Abbott has bused over 12,000 illegal migrants to Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City, while Ducey has bused 2,043 to the nation’s capital, each governor’s office told the DCNF.
It’s incentivizing “when migrants hear that there are buses that will take them to locations where they are told they will receive benefits and jobs,” Magnus said, adding that smugglers usually utilize such information “to further manipulate and mislead migrants,” according to the LA Times.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 19: Chris Magnus appears before a United States Senate Committee on Finance hearing to consider his nomination to be Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on October 19, 2021 in Washington, DC.Rod Lamkey-Pool/Getty Images
The Democratic leadership in the cities receiving the illegal migrants bused from the border have criticized the Republicans’ actions.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office said in September that “racism” motivated Abbott in his busing tactic.
“We know that racism, discrimination, and human cruelty have played a pivotal role in how immigrants are received within our borders, and we are still working to recover from the previous presidential administration, which encouraged this behavior,” Lightfoot’s Deputy Communications Director Ryan Johnson wrote on Twitter at the time.
CBP and Ducey’s office declined to comment on the matter.
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