AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday warned mayors of big, mostly Democratic cities to be “on notice” as groups of migrants could be bused to their town from Texas.
This comes after New York City received its first busload of migrants from Texas earlier this month as part of a program launched by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in April. The program organizes charter buses to take migrants who have crossed the border and agree to it to Washington, D.C. Now, New York City is being added as a destination.
“Every mayor of a big blue city, which are most of the top 25 in the country, should be on notice. Look out your window, you might see a bus coming to you one day in the future, and the buses are going to keep coming,” Patrick said to Anchor Bill Hemmer on Fox News.
Texas’ migrant transport plan was created as the Biden administration moved to end Title 42, a policy enacted at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 that expels migrants from the U.S. without giving them a chance to request asylum.
“If we can put pressure on all these Democrat mayors around the country, maybe they’ll pick up the phone and call Joe Biden and say, ‘the border is not secure,'” Patrick continued on to say.
Earlier this month, Abbott invited the mayors of Washington, D.C., and New York City to visit the Texas-Mexico border after they complained about Texas busing migrants to their cities.
After the migrant group arrived in New York, the Texas Tribune reported NYC Mayor Eric Adams said, “I think that Gov. Abbott, what he’s doing is just so inhumane.” Adams accused Abbott of “putting them on a bus for the 44-hour ride, very few breaks, no food, no direction and clear information.”
As of Aug. 5, more than 6,500 migrants on over 150 buses have left Texas and been dropped off in D.C. since the effort was launched in April, according to the governor’s press secretary.
“Texas will keep sending buses of migrants to NYC and I support sending migrants to other big Democrat-led cities,” Patrick went on to write on Twitter. “The Democrats are squarely responsible for the crisis on our southern border. Until Democrat governors and mayors speak up, they share the blame with Joe and Kamala.”