Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s vehicular vendetta with Democrat-run cities over the southern border crisis has cost taxpayers more than $12 million — as the Biden administration struggles to handle the surge at the border.
Figures from the Texas Division of Emergency Management show the Lone Star State has spent over $12.7 million to bus migrants to New York City and Washington DC, CNN reported.
A spreadsheet obtained by the outlet through a Freedom of Information Act Request shows that, as of August 9, the state has paid $12,707,720.92 to charter service Wynne Transportation to move the migrants northward.
Abbott has sent scores of migrants on chartered buses to New York and DC in a political stand against what he blasted as President Biden’s “irresponsible open border policies.”
More than 7,400 migrants have been bused to DC since April and more than 1,500 migrants to New York City since August 5, Abbott’s office said in a statement Friday, according to CNN.
In an apparent acknowledgment of the cost, Abbott’s office has been soliciting for donations to fund the fleet. A web portal for donations says that any funds not used to charter buses will go towards the state’s border wall efforts.
But CNN has reported that the state has raised a mere $167,828 in donations, leaving taxpayers on the hook for well over $12 million — as the crisis at the southern border under President Biden intensifies.
Raul Ortiz, the chief of the US Border Patrol, blames the Biden administration’s “no consequences” immigration policy — and expects the problem will worsen.
Border-crossers who have been released from federal custody are typically allowed to travel freely ahead of scheduled immigration court dates.
“In my experience, we have seen increases when there are no consequences,” Ortiz said in a July deposition, which was obtained this week by Fox News Digital.
“So, it will increase at an exponential rate. Is that what is being suggested here?” Ortiz was then pressed.
“Well, I do think it will increase, yeah,” the border cop replied.
Meanwhile, the number of migrants coming to the US from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries has also shifted to people making the journey from as far away as Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela, a new analysis found.
Migrants fleeing from Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua has soared 11,000% since 2007, according to the analysis of Border Patrol statistics by CNN.
The relocation of migrants from the Lone Star state has led to an ongoing war of words between Mayor Adams and Abbott.
Manuel Castro, the Big Apple’s commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, recently accused Abbott of placing security on the buses in an effort to keep them from disembarking before reaching the city.
Abbott’s office has denied the accusation.
“Mayor Adams is flat-out lying and knows nothing about Texas’ busing operations. Migrants are allowed to disembark at any of the stops on the way to New York City or Washington, D.C., as they have been processed and released by the federal government,” press secretary Renae Eze told The Post earlier this month.
Castro, in turn, has called the busing project a political stunt, part of Abbott’s race for a third term against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.
“We expect this to continue through November — through his reelection campaign — and we’ll see from there,” Castro told The Post last week.
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