Immigration
Texas Gov. Abbott says migrants who took bus to vice president's home "willingly chose to go"
According to Abbott's office, the people who were bused to D.C. “willingly chose to go”
December 28, 2022 3:08am
Updated: December 28, 2022 7:21am
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is pushing back against the White House after a spokesperson criticized his decision to bus migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ home on Christmas Eve during freezing temperatures.
"The White House is full of a bunch of hypocrites, led by the Hypocrite-in-Chief .... Instead of their hypocritical complaints about Texas providing much-needed relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities, President Biden and Border Czar Harris need to step up and do their jobs to secure the border—something they continue failing to do," Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Abbott, said in a statement.
On Christmas Eve, more than 100 undocumented migrants were dropped off at the vice president’s home despite record-breaking cold temperatures. Many of the migrants, who arrived only wearing T-shirts to D.C. despite cold weather, came from Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, and Colombia.
Since last April, Abbott has sent more than 15,000 migrants from the Texas border with Mexico to Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia to push back on federal immigration policies, which he claims are overwhelming border communities.
On Sunday, the White House spokesperson Adbullah Hasan called the Christmas Eve buses a “cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt.”
"Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below-freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities," Hasan said in a statement.
"As we have repeatedly said, we are willing to work with anyone – Republican or Democrat alike – on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger."
According to Eze, the people who were bused to D.C. “willingly chose to go” and "signed a voluntary consent waiver available in multiple languages upon boarding that they agreed on the destination."
"They were processed and released by the federal government, who are dumping them at historic levels in Texas border towns like El Paso, which recently declared a state of emergency because of the Biden-made crisis," Eze added.
