Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Wednesday evening that immigrants will be transported from the Lonestar State to Chicago in the latest iteration of his controversial bus program.
The first busload of immigrants arrived at Chicago’s Union Station on Wednesday night, as the Windy City becomes the third destination city for asylum-seeking immigrants transported from Del Rio, Texas, Abbott’s office said.
He has already sent migrants to Chicago, Washington, DC and New York City.
“To continue to provide much-needed assistance to our small, inundated frontier towns, Chicago will join other sanctuary cities of Washington, DC and New York City as an additional drop-off location,” Abbott said.
“Mayor Lightfoot likes to point out her city’s responsibility to welcome everyone regardless of legal status, and I look forward to seeing this responsibility in action as these migrants receive resources from a refuge city with the capacity to serve them. ”
In April, Abbott began transporting immigrants from the border to Washington, DC. Immigrants arrived in New York City in June.
Abbott’s bus program, which uses both taxpayer money and private donations, has so far delivered a price tag of $12 million, or about $1,300 per immigrant bus transported to the East Coast.
The immigrants who are part of Abbott’s program are not illegal immigrants. They have taken the first step to apply for asylum and have been granted legal permission to remain in the country while the federal government decides whether they are eligible for asylum or not.
The Post traveled to the US-Mexico border to see firsthand as asylum seekers from countries like Venezuela and Cuba board the buses in Del Rio, Texas, after being screened by federal immigration authorities.
The governor’s office has maintained that the bus program is voluntary and immigrants can get off the bus at any time, but immigrants aboard a bus from Texas to the Big Apple called 911 after saying they couldn’t get off the bus in Tennessee. were allowed to walk.
The Post got the 911 recording in which immigrants told authorities they were being “held against their will.”
