“Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden Administration’s failure to secure our border,” the governor said.
WASHINGTON — A group of undocumented migrants arrived in the nation’s capital Wednesday on a bus sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, part of the Republican governor’s strategy to oppose the Biden administration‘s rescinding of a Trump-era border policy.
“By busing migrants to Washington, D.C., the Biden Administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border,” Abbott said in a statement Wednesday, adding that another busload is en route.
The migrants, from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, were being dropped off between Union Station and the Capitol as “part of Governor Abbott’s response to the Biden Administration’s decision to end Title 42 expulsions,” his office said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently announced that the administration would terminate the Trump-era public health rule, known as Title 42, which the U.S. has used since the spring of 2020 to stop the spread of Covid by preventing immigrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to claim asylum.
The policy, which is set to be lifted on May 23, has prevented more than 1.7 million attempts by immigrants to cross the border during the pandemic. DHS officials have warned of a potential surge of more than 170,000 migrants if Title 42 is lifted.