The governor of Texas, the Republican Greg Abbott, announced on Tuesday a series of measures to stop migration on the border with Mexico, which he falsely described as an "invasion", while expanding the sending of buses with asylum seekers, until now limited to New York, Washington DC and Chicago, to other cities governed by Democrats, such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Abbott assured that he has invoked the "invasion clauses" of the US and state Constitutions, "fully authorizing Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend itself." Among them, he explained, deploying the National Guard and state agents on the border to intercept, detain, and return migrants crossing into Mexico; build a wall in several border counties; deploy gun ships; and designate Mexico's drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
The number of migrants intercepted at the border with Mexico grew slightly in October to 230,678, 1.4% more than in September and the third highest number of the Joe Biden presidency, according to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for its acronym in English) known this Monday.
This figure may however include people who try more than once.
Abbott has already sent more than 300 buses of asylum seekers arriving in Texas to New York, Chicago and Washington DC since last spring to ease pressure on border cities and highlight what it sees as failed immigration policy on the part of the US government. Joe Biden government.
This Tuesday he announced on the social network Twitter that from now on he will also send them to Philadelphia, whose local authorities have been preparing for days before the rumors, until now denied by Texas, about the arrival of these buses.
[A bus with immigrants sent by Texas from the border arrives in Washington DC: “They are tired and hungry”]
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Abbott began this transfer plan after Biden announced that he would end Title 42, a measure approved by the Government of Donald Trump at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to immediately expel asylum seekers from the country, without allow them to present their case before an immigration court alleging the health danger they pose.
Justice finally blocked the end of this measure, which is still in force today.
[Migrant women detained in Georgia by ICE suffered “excessive, invasive and unnecessary” medical procedures]
The governors of Arizona and Florida, Republicans Doug Ducey and Ron DeSantis, seconded Abbott's political maneuver.
DeSantis has even chartered several planes to send migrants to the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
The massive arrival of migrants collapsed the social services of New York and Washington DC, which mobilized resources to place them in empty shelters and hotels, or set up centers to manage aid and guide them in the asylum application process.