Texas governor sent undocumented migrants to Washington, DC

About 30 people from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua traveled to the U.S. capital as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s new plan in response to the end of a controversial Trump-era border policy that excluded immigrants.

Title 42 is a law that justifies the US Border Patrol or US Customs and Border Protection prohibiting the entry of immigrants who potentially pose a health risk by having been in a country where any communicable disease is present.

The Trump administration excluded refugees and immigrants seeking asylum based on potential exposure to coronavirus, which is far more common in the US than in any other nation.

Abbott is sending undocumented migrants to Washington, DC, in a rebuke of President Joe Biden’s border policies.

“Look at what they’re having to deal with, in an unprecedented fashion, along the border,” said Abbott, who appeared at a groundbreaking ceremony for a Texas Department of Public Safety memorial and claimed that DPS has to apprehend undocumented immigrants who evade Border Patrol agents.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke said the president should have given border communities a plan before ending a pandemic-era immigration rule that will lead to an increase in migrants.

“It does not make sense to end this until there is a real plan and the capacity in place to handle those and address those that come over,” said O’Rourke. “I have yet to hear a plan from the Biden administration to address the dynamic we will have on the border once Title 42 ends.”

Once migrants are processed by federal authorities and released from custody, they’re allowed to move freely while they go through immigration court proceedings.

An immigration judge will ultimately decide if they are allowed to remain in the US or be deported.

At their final destination, they’re expected to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an ICE official said.

The organization Catholic Charities DC, which provides social services such as food assistance and medical care, had staff available to provide help when the migrants were dropped off, according to the group’s spokesperson Kate Kennedy.

The migrants said they were provided food and water during the 30-hour bus ride before the bus pulled up in front of the building that houses Fox News, NBC News and ⁦Cspan and parked outside.

Five migrants from Venezuela said they had arrived at the US-Mexico border on Sunday, seeking asylum, and they were offered a voluntary bus ride to DC after being released from custody until their immigration proceedings are completed.

Abbott, a Republican who is running for reelection this fall, has been a harsh critic of the Biden administration’s immigration policies and has sought to make headlines with various publicity stunts.

“By busing migrants to Washington, DC, the Biden administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border,” said Abbott. “Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden administration’s failure to secure our border.”

The Texas Division of Emergency Management said charter bus rides were paid for by Texas taxpayers, through funds appropriated by the Texas Legislature for border security.

The two-term Republican governor also caused commercial trucks to back up for miles into Mexico after requiring them to stop for additional inspections in Texas, lifted that order for bridges in El Paso and other cities after announcing a new security agreement with the neighboring Mexican state of Chihuahua.

It remains not a full repeal of Abbott’s policy that he rushed into place April 6 as part of an ongoing fight with the Biden administration, intended for political purposes more than the flow of migrants or drugs.

The lengthy extra inspections elsewhere along Texas’ 1,200-mile border — including in the busy Rio Grande Valley — will continue until Abbott says similar agreements are reached with other Mexican states.

But the deal with Gov. María Campos Galván of Chihuahua, who joined Abbott for the announcement in the Texas Capitol, sets in motion the biggest relief yet for traffic that has snarled the Texas-Mexico border and raised intensifying warnings of higher prices for U.S. shoppers and spare grocery store shelves.

“People like me who buy millions of dollars of produce a week are starting to curb their purchases toward other regions of the country,” said Brent Erenwert, CEO of Brothers Produce in Houston, which relies heavily on imports from Mexico.