Texas paid more than $124 million sending migrants by bus to sanctuary cities, records revealed, according to KXAN.
Texas spent $124,603,616.19 busing more than 100,000 migrants who crossed the southern border to sanctuary cities as of Jan. 10, the documents obtained by Nexstar showed.
Records: Abbott’s migrant busing has cost Texas $124 million | Taxpayers are footing about 99.6% of the total cost of these buses
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— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) February 2, 2024
The total is equivalent to 2,245 buses year to date, averaging 45 migrants per bus, the outlet reported. Migrants were sent to Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles, according to the documents, which were obtained by the outlet through a public information request to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Most of the payments were made to Wynne Transportation LLC, while many others were made to Transportation Management Services Inc, the documents showed.
Taxpayer dollars funded approximately 99.6% of the cost of the busing initiative. The money was appropriated by the Texas Legislature for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star,” according to the outlet. (RELATED: House Homeland Security Committee Approves Two Articles of Impeachment Against Alejandro Mayorkas)
Abbott also raised $460,196 through a donation portal as of December 2023 to help foot the bill, according to the governor’s office. Migrants do not pay the state for their bus ticket, as being bussed to sanctuary cities is reportedly voluntary. The documents did not disclose the cost of a single bus ticket.
The Border Patrol recorded more than 2.3 million encounters of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border in fiscal year 2022, and over 2.4 million in fiscal year 2023, federal data shows.