One week after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vowed to send illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C., the first bus is arriving.
“Fox & Friends” aired footage of migrants disembarking from a bus in the nation’s capital on Wednesday, just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol building.
Co-host Steve Doocy remarked, “Another observation of everybody we saw come off the bus, that flies in the face of what has been told to us by the White House, and that is you know they always go, ‘Well we’re only letting women and children, family units in.'”
“We’ve only seen single men so far. We’ve seen five people. They’re all single adult men. So, where are the families? Apparently, they did not take Greg Abbott up on the offer for the free bus ride to Washington,” he added.
Watch the video below:
https://twitter.com/thejcoop/status/1514218671610241024
Meanwhile, co-host Brian Kilmeade chimed in, “I don’t love the fact that there’s a whole bunch of people waiting to get admission into our country the right way. And because of the spat between the governor and the president, we’re getting a whole bunch of people who just got a free bus ride right to Washington, D.C.”
“So what lesson is that if you’re watching in Mexico, Central America, Russia, Ukraine? Don’t even go through our system. This is how you get here. Seems like fun,” he added.
According to Fox News, the migrants on the bus came from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Additionally, there were some family units on board.
The Texas governor tweeted Wednesday, “First Texas bus drops off illegal immigrants blocks from US Capitol in Washington, DC. Biden refuses to come see the mess he’s made at the border.”
“So Texas is bringing the border to him,” he added.
First Texas bus drops off illegal immigrants blocks from US Capitol in Washington, DC.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 13, 2022
Biden refuses to come see the mess he’s made at the border.
So Texas is bringing the border to him.https://t.co/wHZkwnD305
At an April 6 press conference, Abbott said the state would charter buses to send illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C.
“We are sending them to the United States Capitol 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,” Abbott said.
Watch the video below:
BREAKING: Texas Gov. @GregAbbott_TX says that Texas will be sending charter buses of illegal migrants to Washington DC:
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 6, 2022
"The Biden Administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they’re allowing to come across our border." pic.twitter.com/MWM8IqCici
When asked if the administration had plans to respond to busloads of migrants being sent to the capital, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “I’m not aware of what authority the governor would be doing that under.”
“I think it’s pretty clear that this is a publicity stunt. His own office admits that a migrant would need to voluntarily be transported. And he can’t compel them to because, again, enforcement of our country’s immigration laws lies with the federal government,” she added.
On April 1, the Biden administration announced it would end an immigration order known as Title 42, which allowed for the majority of migrants who cross the southern border to be expelled, on May 23.
News about the decision to lift the order sparked concern that there will be a massive surge of migrants attempting to cross the border.
According to CNN, “The Department of Homeland Security is preparing for a worst-case scenario of up to 18,000 people trying to cross the border daily, a number sure to overwhelm the already full border facilities.”