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A second bus from Texas arrived near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., just before 4:30 a.m. Thursday, transporting more than a dozen illegal immigrants as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s new plan to counter federal immigration policies during an ongoing border crisis.
Abbott announced last week that he was directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to transport migrants released from federal custody in Texas to the nation’s capital and other locations outside his state.
FIRST TEXAS BUS DROPS OFF MIGRANTS BLOCKS FROM US CAPITOL IN WASHINGTON, DC
Fourteen migrants stepped off the bus a block from Union Station on First Street. The migrants are from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Colombia, one man said.
A group of migrants apprehended crossing the border in Texas arrived by bus in Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 14, 2022. (Fox News)
One individual, who identified himself as Juan from Colombia, told Fox News that he flew by plane to Mexico and crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S.
Juan and his friend said they are going to New York to join their friends. Juan said he wants to be a barber.
Capitol Police arrived at around 4:45 a.m. to ask questions. Members of a Catholic charity arrived, waiting for the migrants, who began to walk to Union Station at around 4:47 a.m.
Thursday’s arrival follows that of the first bus, which arrived in the nation’s capital Wednesday morning. That bus also carried immigrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Colombia. Fox News learned that they had come from the Del Rio sector in Texas.
MIGRANTS SNAP SELFIES AT BORDER AFTER CROSSING INTO US
According to TDEM, Abbott’s plan is already working. The agency told Fox News on Monday that many of the communities that originally reached out for support – from the Rio Grande Valley to Terrell County – say the federal government stopped dropping immigrants in their towns since Abbott’s announcement on April 6.
A group of migrants were bused from Texas to Washington, D.C., where they were dropped off blocks from the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (Fox News)
TDEM said it dispatched buses over the weekend to border communities where it coordinated with officials to identify these immigrants. The agency added that each bus has the capacity and supplies necessary to carry up to 40 migrants released in Texas communities and transport them to Washington, D.C.
The governor’s legal authority to transport busloads of migrants to the U.S. Capitol remains in question. The 2012 Supreme Court case Arizona v. the United States prevents states from making their own immigration policies.
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Abbott insists that the federal government is failing to adequately address the situation.
“Texans demand and deserve an aggressive, comprehensive strategy to secure our border—not President Biden’s lackluster leadership,” Abbott said in a statement. “As the federal government continues to roll back commonsense policies that once kept our communities safe, our local law enforcement has stepped up to protect Texans from dangerous criminals, deadly drugs, and illegal contraband flooding into the Lone Star State.”