Texas to Put Migrants on Buses to Washington in Border Crackdown

(Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state would take unprecedented measures to combat illegal immigration, including plans to charter buses that would take released migrants from the border to Washington, D.C.

The state will also step up safety inspections of vehicles coming from Mexico, a move that Abbott acknowledged could severely delay crossings, and expand enforcement at various points along the Rio Grande River. Abbott stopped short of declaring the recent surge in migration an “invasion,” which could have allowed him to use more state resources to enforce federal immigration laws.

Abbott, a Republican, said the enhanced measures were needed to combat a jump in migration that is expected to further increase next month when the Biden Administration ends the Title 42 authority that had allowed the U.S. to turn away migrants without hearing asylum claims.

“Texas will be taking its own unprecedented actions this month to do what no state in America has ever done in the history of this country to better secure our state as well as our nation,” Abbott said during a news briefing in Weslaco.

Abbott said additional measures would be announced next week. The governor has already expanded border fencing and deployed state police and National Guard troops to the region for a security mission he calls Operation Lone Star that began last year.

The chartered buses would transport migrants from border communities and deliver them to the “steps of the United States Capitol,” Abbott said. He framed the plan as an effort to ease the burden on Texas cities that have absorbed large numbers of border crossers.

Abbott is running for a third term in November and has made border security a key tenet in his campaign. He's said Biden's “open-border” policies have resulted in a record number of undocumented immigrants trying to enter Texas. The federal government is planning for 18,000 illegal crossings per day when Title 42 ends, according to Abbott.