By Ryan Boettcher, Staff Writer
On Sep. 15, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent a bus full of migrants to the Washington D.C. residence of Vice President Kamala Harris (D) without letting the VP know of his actions.
This was just a first piece of a flurry of migrant movements across the United States by Republican governors, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) chartered two flights of around 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) sent buses full of migrants to New York.
Since April, Abbott has been transporting migrants in buses all around the U.S.without forewarning, but he has mainly targeted Democratic-run states. Now with the transportation of migrants to Kamala Harris’ residence, many people think Abbott has gone too far.
Junior actuarial science major Vincent Randazzo believes that there is a fine line that Abbott is walking in between illegal and legal.
“Although morally incorrect, [Abbott] is not entirely wrong in doing so. It is the way that he does it though that’s the issue. What he’s doing now in general isn’t terrible. It just needed to be coordinated with the states and the federal government,” Randazzo said.
One of the biggest complaints about what governors Abbott and DeSantis are doing with these migrants is that they are lying to them about their future in America and where they can settle down and make a life. There were also some instances in which these migrants were lied to and told they were headed to a different location. According to Chris Mangus, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, all of the governors sending migrants to northern cities and states are lying.
In an interview with WCWP’s Robert Amato, host of Seldom Said, Patrick Young, the Downstate Advocacy Director of the New York Immigration Coalition and Professor of immigration law at Hofstra, talked about the decision of Gov. DeSantis to lie to migrants and flying them to Martha’s Vineyard.
“What we’re seeing from these states is something I’ve seen back then,” Young said, in reference to 1960’s Louisiana buses north for African Americans. “What’s really going on there is this outrageous, cruel act by two governors supported of course by their followers in order to make the media and get on Fox News to push their political agendas… They’re using some of the most vulnerable people in the world to do it. What we saw with the shipment of people to Martha’s Vineyard was what we call trafficking. People were deceived.”
As of now according to the Texas Tribune, DeSantis is facing an investigation by a Texas sheriff and a federal lawsuit from Democratic lawmakers over DeSantis’ use of his $12 million migrant relocation fund.
According to the Washington Post, U.S. arrests alongside the Mexico border have topped two million a year for the first time. That number is a 175 percent increase from August of 2021.
Abbott has even questioned President Joe Biden’s (D) border policies in the past. Following his decision to send buses to Washington D.C, Abbott spoke about why he did it all.
“Washington D.C, finally understands what Texans have been dealing with every single day, as our communities are overrun and overwhelmed by thousands of illegal immigrants thanks to President (Joe) Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott’s press secretary Renae Eze said in a statement to CNN.
As of now, there is no clear path to fix the migrant issue in the U.S, but there are ways that communities and organizations are stepping up to help migrants.
“What we’ve been doing at the New York Immigration Coalition is organizing our members to meet the migrants at the buses coming up from Texas. To assist with these migrants, and working with the city and state governments,” Young said. “We want New York City and New York State to continue to work with us to provide support so that nobody suffers unduly.”
With thousands of migrants being sent all around the country, cooperation, consideration and collaboration are driving points for the states dealing with the migrant issue.
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