(The Center Square) – The Los Angeles mayor criticized Texas for sending another bus of roughly 50 people when Texas was inundated with over 87,000 illegal border crossers in July alone.
On Aug. 21, amid preparation for a tropical storm to make landfall, LA Mayor Karen Bass said, “It is evil to endanger the lives of vulnerable migrants by sending a bus with families and toddlers on board to a city that at the time was under an unprecedented tropical storm warning. As I stood with state and local leaders warning Angelenos to stay safe and brace themselves for the worst of the coming storm, the Governor of Texas sent families and toddlers straight for us on a path through extreme weather conditions. If anybody understands the danger of hurricanes and thunderstorms, it’s the Governor of Texas – who has to deal with this threat on an annual basis. This is a despicable act beyond politics.”
The storm she referred to was later classified as a post-tropical storm, with NBC Los Angeles Ch. 4 News reporting rain “was expected to diminish by Monday afternoon in Los Angeles.”
The bus left Brownsville, Texas, and arrived at LA’s Union Station around 6:45 PM PT on Monday after the rain had already diminished. It was the ninth bus to arrive in the self-described sanctuary city from Texas. Those choosing to be bused to Los Angeles signed waivers and agreed to receive free transportation to Los Angeles paid for by Texas taxpayers.
So far, Texas has bused over 330 illegal foreign nationals to Los Angeles over the last two months.
Last month alone, Texas saw nearly 3,000 illegal border crossers apprehended or reported evading capture daily.
When Gov. Abbott first announced he was expanding Texas’ busing strategy to include Los Angeles in June of this year, he said, “Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status. Our border communities are on the frontlines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much-needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border.”
In April 2022, Gov. Abbott first began busing foreign nationals who illegally entered Texas from Mexico and were unlawfully released by the Biden administration to self-described sanctuary cities. Abbott argued the move provided relief to border communities. Texas border communities were “overwhelmed and overrun by the thousands of people illegally crossing into Texas from Mexico because of President Biden’s refusal to secure the border,” he said.
Since then, Texas has bused 31,940 people to six self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities.”
Washington, D.C., was the first sanctuary city destination, with over 11,000 illegal foreign nationals being bused there since April 2022. He then expanded to New York City and Chicago, with over 12,000 being bused to New York City and over 5,600 to Chicago since August 2022. By November 2022, Philadelphia was added as the fourth city and has received over 2,300 people.
This year, Abbott expanded to two more cities: Denver and Los Angeles. Since May, over 710 have been bused to Denver; since June, over 330 have been sent to Los Angeles.
By comparison, in July of this year alone, Texas was inundated with over 87,000 illegal border crossers. This includes over 29,000 illegal entries in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, over 4,000 in the Laredo Sector, nearly 25,000 in the El Paso Sector, over 29,000 in the Del Rio Sector and over 700 in the Big Bend Sector.
These numbers only represent illegal entries between ports of entry. They exclude those arriving at ports of entry who used the CBP One App. Attorneys general who’ve sued over the app argue it’s just another way to unlawfully release even more people into the U.S.
In addition to the busing strategy, Texas OLS officers are regularly engaged in interdiction efforts. Since OLS was launched over two and half years ago, OLS officers have apprehended over 414,000 illegal foreign nationals and made more than 33,200 criminal arrests, with more than 30,100 felony charges reported. They’ve also seized over 426 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill more than everyone in the United States.
Every person they apprehend and every ounce of drugs they seize, Gov. Abbott has argued, “would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies.”
