Buses transporting migrants from Texas to six "sanctuary" cities nationwide have been halted for months despite statements from Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) that have suggested the state is still sending migrants to cities run by Democrats.
As far back as October 2023, Texas stopped sending buses carrying migrants north, the Washington Examiner found in a review of state data. The bus runs to the Capitol and Vice President Kamala Harris's residence in Washington stopped 10 months ago, while those to Philadelphia stopped in December 2023 and Los Angeles in January.
The three other routes — New York City, Denver, and Chicago — were all halted in June.
When asked about the end to busing, Abbott's press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said illegal border crossings into Texas from Mexico had declined substantially.
The ambiguity in Abbott's public statements since June, including at the GOP convention in late July, indicated that the busing has continued, but the program may be on hold at the moment as officials wait to see how immigration trends at the border continue for the next few months.
Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP political consultant in Texas and partner with Steinhauser Strategies in Central Texas, said his message to Abbott would be to double down on the success of the operation.
“If the program is not going to continue because the numbers are down and it’s worked well then say that. Say this effort has been successful. We were able to stem the tide. People are going to other states to enter — California, New Mexico," said Steinhauser in a phone call Friday. "It could be two months from now they pick it back up."
The state spent $230 million to bus 119,700 people to six cities. That averages out at $1,921 per person.
In April 2022, Abbott first announced that the state would provide state-funded bus rides to Washington for migrants who had illegally crossed the southern border into Texas, been arrested by federal Border Patrol agents, and allowed to remain in the United States through immigration court proceedings.
“To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hoards of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden administration, Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden administration to Washington, D.C.,” Abbott said during a press conference at the time.
“We are sending them to the United States’s capital, where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border," said Abbott, adding that people would be dropped off at the "steps of the United States Capitol."
Abbott's action was chided by Democrats as a political move that treated migrants as pawns.
On certain days that year, the buses bypassed the Capitol and dropped off migrants outside Harris's residence, including on Christmas Eve .
The busing operation began in April 2022 with buses only going to Washington. Between April and December 2022, the state added additional destinations, including New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. In that time, 16,000 people took bus rides.
"It was very slow to start. People had to know about it. We had to figure out how to implement it. There was a lot of questions about it, the legal side and liability, voluntary versus involuntary," said Steinhauser. "It’s been going smoothly enough now that we know how it’s worked out."
By July 2023, the state had added destinations to Denver and Los Angeles. Since its inception in April 2022, it has transported 25,080 migrants in 14 months.
Between July and September 2023, another 20,500 people boarded buses, or nearly 7,000 per month.
An additional 46,000 boarded buses between September and December 2023, roughly 15,000 per month. By the end of last December, more than 92,000 people had been bused to the six cities.
Rides to Washington and Philadelphia were halted in the lead-up to the year's end but with no public announcement that they would be discontinued.
At the start of 2024, New York City Mayor Eric Adams sued in an attempt to prevent bus companies from participating in the Texas bus operation. Abbott quietly stopped buses to Los Angeles.
Between January and June this year, approximately 25,000 migrants boarded buses to the remaining cities: Chicago, New York City, and Denver.
The grand total of 119,400 has not changed since the last state update on June 28.
Although the New York City lawsuit was thrown out in late July, the busing operation has not continued despite Abbott's rhetoric.
"Another WIN! The New York Supreme Court REJECTED Mayor Adams’ attempt to block Texas from busing migrants to his sanctuary city," Abbott said in a post to X on July 31. "Until the Biden-Harris Administration secures the border, Texas will continue to send migrants to sanctuary cities."
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The success in court means that should Texas choose to return to offering free bus rides to migrants, it will have the green light. Any return to busing will depend on what illegal immigration at the southern border looks like ahead of the November election and in the transition period before January, when arrests have historically ticked up.
Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, more than 5.3 million illegal immigrants who crossed the southern border have been allowed to remain in the U.S., according to a House Judiciary Committee report.
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