Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on May 18, 2023, “the arrival of the first group of migrants bused to Denver, Colorado from Texas.” This follows Texas bussing illegal immigrants to Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, DC.
Governor Abbott blamed the Biden Administration’s “border policies” for the influx of illegal immigrants burdening Texas communities and the need for bussing to sanctuary cities:
Texas’ overwhelmed and overrun border communities should not have to shoulder the flood of illegal immigration due to President Biden’s reckless open border policies, like his mass catch and release without court dates or any way to track them. Until the President and his Administration step up and fulfill their constitutional duty to secure the border, the State of Texas will continue busing migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities like Denver to provide much-needed relief to our small border towns.
Texas began its program of shipping illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities in April 2022 and has reported bussing over 19,000 people since then.
Chicago, under the direction of then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, strenuously objected to Texas’s bussing program in a letter dated April 30, 2023. Mayor Lightfoot urged the Abbott “administration to stop the inhumane and dangerous action”:
The nation’s capital, under Mayor Muriel Bowser, declared a public emergency on September 8, 2022, in response to Texas’s bussing of illegal immigrants and established “an Office of Migrant Services to provide support and services to migrants being bused.” Mayor Bowser allocated “an initial $10 million” to the efforts.
The Center for Immigration Studies, “which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted,” maintains a directory of sanctuary cities, counties, and states in the United States. These sanctuary entities refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement or will cooperate in only limited circumstances. While the directory does not list Denver as a sanctuary city, it does like Denver County, which contains the city, as a sanctuary county.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, Chicago was the first among Texas’s targets to declare itself a sanctuary city in July 2012, with the addition in April 2021 of Washington, DC.
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