The State of Texas had to deal with a serious influx of migrants in the past two years, an issue that reached its culmination in December. According to official data, the Border Patrol tallied 249,785 arrests on the Mexican border in December last year, up 31% from 191,112 in November and up 13% from 222,018 in December 2022, the previous all-time high. The border crisis has now become a national issue that bothers a record number of people across the nation.
Keeping the border safe and secure is a very complicated and expensive process. Texas officials, in the absence of adequate federal help, were left on their own to find proper solutions to fight illegal immigration. Thankfully, many Republican-led states helped Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in his efforts to secure the border, something that was just an addition to the set of controversial measures and laws enforced by the state with the aim of preventing illegal immigration.
The aggressive measures include installing a floating buoy barrier and building a border wall, steps that sparked nationwide debate and initiated several legal processes against Gov. Abbott and the state of Texas. But Gov. Abbott went even further when he decided to implement probably the most controversial measure—relocating thousands of migrants in major cities led by Democrats. In a January post on X, Abbott announced that Texas has transported over 100,000 migrants to sanctuary cities to relieve overwhelmed border towns.
Where is Texas busing migrants
According to the Texas Gov. Abbott office announcement from early January, the state of Texas has bused over 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. since April 2022, over 37,100 migrants to New York City since August 2022, over 30,800 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022, over 15,700 migrants to Denver since May 18, over 1,500 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14 (the data is valid until Jan. 12, 2024). Some of these cities are now on the brink of bankruptcy.
“I think it’s at this point, politically unsustainable for the Biden administration to maintain this unlimited flow into what’s essentially a welfare state network of cities like New York, Denver and Chicago,” said Simon Hankinson to CNBC, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Chicago and New York put limit on migrants
With the ongoing issue, cities like Chicago and New York are starting to limit the number of migrants coming from the South. However, experts believe that cities need more help and money from the federal government to deal with this situation properly.
“The current level of federal funding provided to state and local government is a drop in the bucket compared to the need,” according to Debu Gandhi, senior director of immigration policy at The Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan and progressive policy institute. “Congress has provided a very small amount of money of $800 million for a FEMA program for the entire country the last fiscal year to assist cities in aiding these newcomers.”
New York City has gotten only 10% of what the city has spent for helping migrants in 2023
Cities are saying that this money isn’t enough. For example, New York City got $145 million, but that’s less than 10% of what it actually spent on helping migrants in 2023, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a group that looks at migration without taking sides.
“This is a whole spectrum of housing, of services needed for people who are new to a place, new to a country, new to a city,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. “These are complicated issues to manage, so the city, the state and the federal government, frankly, were not prepared for it.”
