On Friday, two buses carrying nearly 90 migrants from Latin America arrived in Philadelphia, AFP reports.
These migrants had been sent from the state of Texas, which, along with other conservative states bordering Mexico, has been sending migrants to northern Democratic strongholds in an attempt to criticize Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
The group of over 85 men, women, and children is largely made up of Colombians and Nicaraguans who had crossed into the US near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Charitable organizations helping the migrants said that most of them would like to go to New York, and that they are trying to arrange transportation for them.
The White House has criticized the states for using migrants as “political pawns.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbot (R) on Friday ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Texas Military Department (TMD) to expand their efforts to combat illegal immigration along the Texas-Mexico border. The operation, called Operation Lone Star, involves DPS troopers and Texas National Guard soldiers who have been repelling and turning back immigrants trying to cross the border illegally, arresting criminals, and seizing fentanyl. Gov. Abbot called the move a response to the Biden admin’s “ongoing failure to secure the border.”
“Until Congress acts or the Biden Administration does its constitutionally required job, Texas Guardsmen and Troopers must bear the burden of securing the border,” Abbot’s letter to DPS Director Steve McCraw and TMD Adjutant General Thomas Suelzer reads. “You must continue to keep Texans and Americans safe and protect against an invasion of the southern border. I order you to use all resources and tools available to repel immigrants from attempting to cross illegally, arrest those who cross illegally and return them to the border, and arrest criminals who violate Texas law.”
