Abbott rages at Biden admin as overwhelmed El Paso resumes busing migrants — with 2,000 border crossers a day: ‘It’s insane’
Over 2,000 migrants a day are flooding into the US at El Paso, forcing the city to start chartering as many buses out as it can in an attempt to stop it from being overrun.
After resisting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s offers of busing migrants for over a year, Democrat leaders of the city said they are at “breaking point” and have allowed the state to charter buses from the border to sanctuary cities across America.
This week the city also re-started its own charter program using money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as they attempt to deal with the constant stream of people allowed over the border and to seek asylum.
“We’re looking at least 2,000 [migrants] coming forward every day,” Mayor Oscar Leeser said Monday during a city council meeting.
The city’s statistics showed over 7,500 migrants currently in Border Patrol custody and over 1,200 a day being released freely into the US – numbers equivalent to the height of the border crisis in May.
El Paso has sent 24 buses from the border since last Friday, moving some 1,057 people in six days, according to sources.
Abbott says the blame lies squarely with the administration for not properly enforcing immigration policy.
Speaking at The Post’s offices on Thursday he said: “All that Biden has done is lie about what’s going on at the border.
“All they ever say, whether it be Biden, [Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro] Mayorkas or [White House Press Secretary] Karine Jean-Pierre, is ‘the border is closed.’ It’s insane.
“They truly are clueless about what’s going on and what causes the problems at the border. Three years ago we had the lowest border crossings in 40 years because of four policies: Remain in Mexico, Title 42, ending Catch and Release and building the border wall.
“Biden came into office and eliminated all four of those.”
Worryingly, El Paso is no longer the busiest border crossing in the US, sitting behind Eagle Pass and Laredo in Texas as well as Tucson in Arizona, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics.
Although leaders in New York — the top destination for migrants entering the country – have said they can’t handle any more asylum seekers, buses are still being chartered to join the estimated 60,000 migrants still under the city’s care.
Chicago has also run out of shelter space to house migrants, but 27 buses carrying “hundreds” of people have arrived since Saturday according to the Chicago Tribune.
On Wednesday Abbott said he had bused 15,800 migrants to New York City through his program, which he pointed out is around only 13% of the total received by the city since Spring 2022.
His office said he has also bused over 23,000 more migrants to Washington, DC, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles as part of the program, established to raise awareness of the border crisis in liberal states.
He is also planning to add Albuquerque in New Mexico to that list.
A charter company reached out to leaders from the city on behalf of the state on Wednesday night to inform Texas plans to bus migrants there, a spokeswoman for the city said.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Kelle immediately blasted the decision, telling The Post in a statement: “The Texas Governor’s gutless actions reflect his inability to lead during challenging times —we need solutions, not dangerous, life-threatening stunts.
“In Albuquerque, we will continue to work with our non-profit and faith-based partners to provide emergency assistance to migrants traveling through our city.”
Statistics published by The Post show that 1.23 million migrants have crossed the border seeking asylum in the past 11 months, according to data analyzed by the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
