Texas begins dispatching buses to the border to transport illegal immigrants to DC
The Texas Division of Emergency Management tells Fox News Digital each bus can ‘carry up to 40 migrants’
Texas has dispatched buses to the southern border to retrieve illegal immigrants after Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that he planned to send those released in his state to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Within the last 24 hours, the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) has dispatched an unspecified number of buses to small Texas communities that are said by officials to be overwhelmed by an influx of migrants placed there by the federal government.
“In the last 24 hours, TDEM has dispatched buses to areas where communities have expressed concerns about the federal government dropping off migrants and has the capability to send as many as is necessary to fulfill the requests from mayors and county judges,” Seth Christensen, chief of media and communications for TDEM, told Fox News Digital.
Christensen also said the majority of areas in the state that expressed concern over the large numbers of illegal immigrants being placed in their communities now say the federal government has “stopped dropping migrants in their towns” since Abbott’s announcement.
“From the [Rio Grande Valley] to Terrell County, a large majority of the communities that originally reached out for support through this operation have now said that the federal government has stopped dropping migrants in their towns since the governor’s announcement on Wednesday,” he said.
Christensen said each bus “has the capacity and supplies necessary to carry up to 40 migrants.”
On Wednesday, Abbott said at a news conference that the state would be sending the migrants “to the United States Capitol, where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border.”
W. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said at the time that his agency will “use as many buses as we need” to follow Abbott’s directive.
The plan comes weeks before Title 42 is slated to expire on May 23. The Trump-era health order has been used to expel migrants at the southern border since the COVID-19 pandemic.