Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reacted to a report that the Biden administration is considering a policy change that would force migrant families to remain in Texas during the asylum process with a policy move of his own — more buses to Washington, D.C.
The policy change being considered, reported by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, could be a response by the administration to lessen the burden on major metropolitan areas from an influx of migrants.
But while the administration might be mulling the Reagan-era change to disallow migrant families from roaming freely in the U.S., Abbott is keeping the buses warm.
"This scam was tried years ago & was shot down by a judge," Abbott posted to X late Thursday night. "We will send Biden the same swift justice. And, we will add even more buses of migrants to Washington D.C."
Under the change being considered, federal officials would continue to track the migrants with GPS monitoring devices and work with local organizations to house them while they wait for their hearing, according to the Times. Border states other than Texas also are being considered.
Currently, the Family Expedited Removal Management (FERM) imposes curfews and tracks migrant families via GPS traveling to large cities. The change to FERM, keeping migrant families where they crossed, would make it easier to locate them in the event of a failed asylum hearing and deport them.
The policy, if implemented, would harken to the Reagan administration, which in the late 1980s tried a policy of applying for asylum where you crossed and waiting in place for the process to play out.
Texas has been searching for its own strategies to better manage and prevent the migrant influx across its border with Mexico.
Abbott said this week that Texas has shipped more than 35,000 migrants to sanctuary cities since August 2022, including more than 13,300 to New York City.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his state, like others, is struggling to meet the needs of thousands of migrants.
"This issue will destroy New York City," Adams said Wednesday. "... All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000, and I'm telling you now at 110,000. The city we knew, we're about to lose."
The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. Border Patrol arrested a record 91,000 migrants who illegally crossed as part of a family group in August. The previous record was nearly 84,500 set in May 2019.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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