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Governor Greg Abbott said Monday that Texas has been forced to ‘fight’ against the Biden administration regarding border security and said he wants to flood Washington, D.C. with 450 buses of migrants so the nations’ capital can experience what his state’s communities are facing.
The governor, speaking at a press conference in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday afternoon, said that the cities and towns in his state are seeing ‘illegal migrants dumped off in their communities’ by the busloads every day.
‘They had no capability of dealing with them,’ Abbott told the press gathered in Eagle Pass City Hall. ‘And they talked about having to put them on buses and send them up to San Antonio. I said, I’ve got a better idea – we’re going to send them to Washington, D.C.’
‘We’re trying to help communities… along the southern border not have to deal with this tidal wave of people in their communities,’ he added. ‘So we are a relief valve for those communities by moving the migrants out and getting them to Washington, D.C.’
‘And we’re up to our 45th bus now, when you add a zero to that, I think Washington D.C. is going to soon find out they’re dealing with the same consequences as we’re dealing with,’ Abbott proposed.
The governor said that neither President Joe Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris have personally reached out to him to speak about the southern border crisis.
‘President Biden has never once even tried to contact me about the border,’ Abbott said. ‘The czar for the border, Kamala Harris, has never once tried to contact me.’
‘My last contact with [Homeland Security] Secretary Mayorkas was something like in February a year ago,’ he continued. ‘They have no interest in talking to Texas or talking to leaders who are actually on the border. Remember Joe Biden himself has never even been to the border.’
‘We are in a crisis that was man-made by President Biden, who doesn’t want to take the time to even come to the border or talk to the governor of a border state.’
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said during a press conference Monday that he wants to send 450 buses of migrants to Washington, DC so the nation’s capital can experience what border communities are facingÂ
‘We are a relief valve for those communities by moving the migrants out and getting them to Washington, D.C. And we’re up to our 45th bus now, when you add a zero to that, I think Washington D.C. is going to soon find out they’re dealing with the same consequences as we’re dealing with,’ Abbott told press
The border was ‘all hands on deck’ in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday because Title 42 was previously set to expire on May 23, 2022. A judge put a stay on the order ending, allowing Governor Abbott toured the border on Monday
Earlier on Monday, hundreds of migrants were released from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody into the U.S. – the same day Title 42 was supposed to expire before a federal judge blocked the move by the Biden administration.
Busloads of single male migrants arrived at the Mission: Border Hope nonprofit in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday, where they will receive shelter and food before they travel to their final destination within the U.S.
They were transported to the center after being released from CBP custody. Mission then organizes buses to take migrants to San Antonio where they can grab a plane or bus to their final destination.
Executive Director of the non-profit Valeria Wheeler, 35, told DailyMail.com that they house migrants released from Border Patrol until they can purchase tickets out of San Antonio, which is about 2.5 hours away from Eagle Pass.
When asked how many migrants they see each day, Wheeler said: ‘500 – sometimes a little bit less. Yesterday we had 1,000, but it was a mistake. They left. We’ve helped the ones that really needed to stay, but it was so hot that they just left.’
The move to release hundreds of migrants from custody into the U.S. comes the same day that Title 42 was previously supposed to end, which would have given migrants an easier clear path to claim asylum.
Meanwhile, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott is sending a message to migrants trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico that they will be met with force – making clear with a fleet of Humvees and armed National Guard soldiers that the state is still enforcing Title 42.
Authorities expected to see a massive influx of migration Monday, but so far the crossing pints in Eagle Pass, Texas are relatively quiet except for patrolling helicopters and fan boats on the Rio Grande River, as well as dozens of Border Patrol trucks and camouflage and camel-colored Army Humvees caravanning through the town and along the border.
Single men migrants are released from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody on Monday, May 23 and wait in line at the non-profit Mission: Border Hope in Eagle Pass, TexasÂ
Buses of migrants released from U.S. custody into the U.S. arrived at Mission: Border Hope the same day Title 42 was supposed to expire. Migrants wait at the center until they are transported by bus to bus stations and the airport in San Antonio, Texas where they travel to their final destination within the U.S.Â
Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott surveyed the southern border along the Rio Grande River under the Camino Real International Bridge II in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday, May 23, 2022
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials made 234,088 stops on the Mexican border in April, a new high for the Biden administration and an overall 22-year high and a 5.8% increase from the 221,303 encounters in March
Migrants are still coming over the southern border on Monday despite a judge putting a stay on the Biden administration’s attempts to lift Title 42. Pictured: Migrants from Venezuela and Nicaragua turn themselves into National Guard soldiers in Del Rio, Texas on Monday, May 23
Migrants charge their phones and get in contact with family and friends as they try to arrange transport from San Antonio to other parts of the country
Just five miles down the road from the river where hundreds of migrants cross each day, the non-profit Mission: Border Hope, which houses released migrants, received bus loads of single male migrants that were released by Border Patrol into the U.S. the same day Title 42 was meant to expire.
Abbott met with members of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and U.S. National Guard under the Camino Real International Bridge II in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday afternoon.
Following is a border security briefing and a press conference at City Hall.
The governor of Texas shook hands with members of the National Guard in his state – some who have been stationed at the border for months – who are tasked with patrolling popular crossing points along the southern border and intaking migrants for them to be transported to Border Patrol processing facilities.
After processing, hundreds every day are still released from CBP custody despite Title 42 allowing for deportation of asylum-seekers without hearing their claims. Many released turn to NGOs and charities before traveling elsewhere in the U.S.
Wheeler said that migrants and their families need to arrange and pay for travel to their final destination within the U.S. ‘All of them already have tickets, flight tickets or bus tickets, to go out from San Antonio,’ she said of the people who are released from the non-profit facility.
‘We are not willing to create an issue in San Antonio,’ Wheeler added. ‘So we don’t send them if they don’t have travel arrangements done to go to their final destination.’
A gloomy, overcast and chilly winded mid-70s day may have deterred migrants from making the trek across the Rio Grande River with a stronger-than-usual current. But across the border, news is coming that migrants are being prevented from accessing the river.
Despite this, several National Guard soldiers in Eagle Pass told DailyMail.com that they are still expecting the surge previously predicted with the end of Title 42.
Conditions in the Rio Grande River on Monday are extremely dangerous with strong currents in the water, gusting winds and weather warnings of thunderstorms. Sources told a Daily Caller reporter at the border that three migrants drowned Monday morning around 7:00 a.m.
Abbott shook hands with members of the Texas National Guard – some stationed at the border for months – who are tasked with patrolling popular crossing spots in Eagle Pass as well as holding migrants until they are transported to CBP processing centers
Title 42 is still being enforced, which allows for Border Patrol to immediately turn back migrants who make the dangerous trek across the Rio Grande River into the U.S.Â
A woman makes cheese and bologna sandwiches in front of a stack of what appears to be pizza boxes at the shelterÂ
Migrants on the other side of the border insist that even though the policy isn’t being lifted, they still plan to cross the Rio Grande into the U.S. later in the day.
The pandemic-era policy was meant to end Monday, May 23, 2022 – but a federal court ruling in Louisiana on Friday halted the Biden administration’s move attempting to stop Title 42 from remaining in place after more than two years of enforcement.
Abbott, a Republican, will tour the border near the Camino Real International Bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday afternoon before a border security briefing and a press conference at City Hall.
Mexican authorities with drug sniffing German Shepherds patrolled the bank of the Rio Grande River on the Mexico side on Monday morning. And other armed forces stood with their backs to the river watching for signs of groups attempting to cross.
On Sunday, migrants from Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba and Nicaragua continued to trickle over the southern border by way of the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass The number of those crossing the border, however, is a much lower showing than in recent months at that particular crossing point.
A Texas National Guard soldier stationed in Eagle Pass since October told DailyMail.com Sunday that it’s ‘all hands on deck,’ claiming that those patrolling the border are still anticipating influxes of migration this week even though Title 42 is not ending.
The crowded Mission: Border Hope facility in Eagle Pass, Texas was further filled Monday when hundreds of migrants arrived after being released from CBP custody into the U.S. the same day Title 42 was supposed to end
Two men crowd next to a wall where there phones are charging at the border shelter in TexasÂ
Three men use their phones at the border shelter after they were taken into custodyÂ
Migrants who have been waiting in Mexico for months say they still plan to cross on Monday even though Title 42 is still being enforced. Pictured: A man from Venezuela carrying his child reacts with gratitude as he walks along a trail from the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande River into Del Rio, Texas on Monday, May 23
A man hangs clothing to dry as he waits to be taken to a processing center after wading across the waist and chest-high water of the Rio Grande River in Del Rio, Texas on May 23, 2022
Title 42 was enacted in March 2020 under then-President Donald Trump as a way to quell mass migration at the southern border at the onset of the coronavirus crisis. The pandemic-era policy, controlled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), allows for instant expulsion of migrants without officials hearing asylum claims in the midst of a public health emergency.
All Border Patrol authority for dealing with illegal immigration falls under Title 8 – not Title 42.
The policy has so far stopped 1.7 million illegal immigrants since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Humans Rights First found that of those expelled back to Mexico under the law, 10,200 of them – or 0.006 percent – have been kidnapped, raped, tortured or violently attacked.
When the CDC announced last month it was dropping Title 42 after more than two years, it was immediately met with backlash from Republicans, national security hawks and even some Democrats who claimed it would leave the border wide open for illegal immigration.
Many also argued that it didn’t make sense to lift Title 42 while the U.S. is still in an active declared state of emergency due to COVID-19.
Migrants seeking asylum can be turned immediately back to Mexico under Title 42 without their claims being heard – a process that can take just 15 minutes. Here asylum-seeking migrants from Venezuela board a CBP transport van after crossing into Del Rio, Texas Monday
Judge Robert Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana ruled Friday on a temporary stay for Biden’s end to Title 42 restrictions after a lawsuit was filed and signed on by two dozen Republican-led states.
The Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction on the Biden administration’s move to end the restriction in response to the lawsuit led by Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri.
The lawsuit argues the CDC is violating the Administrative Procedures Act because they did not provide a notice-and-comment period for the plan to lift Title 42. The law in question also bars moves that are deemed ‘arbitrary and capricious.’
The plaintiffs also claim the Biden administration failed to account for the added cost to the states – especially border states – of more migrants being allowed into the U.S.
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