Migrants from Texas being flown out to Chicago
TEXAS - Just days after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new law allowing state police to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally, Texas is now flying migrants to Chicago.
"Biden's deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself," said Gov. Abbott on Monday.
Part of Gov. Abbott's plan to relieve Texas border towns from an influx of migrants is sending them elsewhere.
"We are making real progress on this," said James Lankford (R-OK). "We finally have everybody at the table and everyone admitting that this is a national security crisis that we do have to address."
For the first time, Texas is flying migrants out of state. One hundred and twenty people arrived in Chicago on Tuesday.
The decision to travel by plane comes after Chicago proposed new rules and penalties for migrant bus operators.
"They’re just dropping off people anywhere, do you understand how raggedy and how evil that is?," said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. "You’re just going to put people on a bus and just take them somewhere and drop them off in the middle of the night, and then you want to hold us accountable for something that’s happening at the border? It’s sickening."
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According to new data from the border patrol, nearly 200,000 migrants have crossed the U.S. border this month.
"People are still coming, and there are more people in the pipeline, and I suspect Christmas will be worse than today and New Year's will be worse than today," said U.S. Rep Tony Gonzalez (R-TX). "We are going the absolute wrong direction.
So far, Texas has sent more than 80,000 migrants to other cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Chicago.
The mayor's spokesperson says their office is working to find shelter space for all 296 migrants currently staying at O'Hare.