Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott said he had no intention of ever busing migrants to New York City, until recently indicted Mayor Eric Adams started criticizing him.
Abbott has sent 119,000 migrants from Texas to sanctuary cities across the country, with 45,000 being sent to New York. Abbott told the New York Post he at first was only sending them to Washington, D.C., in 2022 to make a point about the Biden administration's failed immigration policies.
"Mayor Adams started criticizing me for busing them to New York, which I was not doing," Abbott told the Post. "But he kept criticizing me. I thought, You know what? New York is a sanctuary city, if I'm going to get the criticism, I'm going to get the credit. So we started busing them to New York."
In July 2022, Adams began claiming migrants were arriving on buses from the Texas and Arizona governments, which both governors, including Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey denied.
Abbott's buses were responsible for about 20% of the 210,000 migrants who have passed through the New York City shelter system since 2022, the Post reported.
The mayor's office told the Post that Adams has done more to help migrants than anything Abbott did.
"For over two years, Gov. Abbott has used human beings as political pawns and sent thousands of migrants to New York City without any kind of communication or coordination," a spokesperson for city hall told the Post. "Thanks to our 30- and 60-day policies — and intensified casework — approximately 70% of the migrants that have come through our care have already taken the next steps in their journeys."
Abbott argued to the Post that his policies helped migrants and forced the immigration issue to the forefront of everyone's mind.
"Because of that process, people across the country began to understand this is not a Texas issue. This is a United States issue. And it made them focus on the political issue, either at the city council level or all the way to the presidential level," Abbott told the Post. "This is not a Texas issue. This is a United States issue caused by the Biden administration."
When Abbott began busing migrants to New York City in August 2022, Texas had 117,000 migrants crossing the border. Last month, there were 28,000 people crossing the border, the Post reported.
Last week, Adams pleaded not guilty to federal bribery charges, firmly rejecting allegations that he accepted overseas travel, campaign cash and other perks from foreign interests seeking to harness his influence.