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Texas paid a private bus company a total of $75.5 million within a one-year timeframe to transport migrants out of the state and into "sanctuary cities" across the country, a new report showed.
Since April last year, the southern state has been loading thousands of migrants on buses directed to Democrat-controlled cities across the U.S.—including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Denver—in an attempt to raise the urgency of the immigration problem in border states.
According to Republican Governor Greg Abbott's office, Texas transported a total of more than 50,000 migrants to multiple sanctuary cities in blue states across the country. Sanctuary cities are places that support migrants in precarious situations, including asylum-seekers, refugees, and those who are undocumented, without denying them the city's public services.
The amount paid to the bus company was shared by the Texas Department of Emergency Management, which said that the border state paid Wynne Transportation a total of $75,561,032.72 between August 19, 2022, and August 23, 2023.
Wynne Transportation is a family-run company based in Irving, Texas, per its website, serving clients who are traveling for either business or leisure and offering charter buses during emergencies.
Newsweek contacted Abbott's office, the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and Wynne Transportation for comment by email on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Abbott's office, Andrew Mahaleris, told Newsweek: "The real cost to consider is that on the small Texas border towns that are burdened and overwhelmed as the Biden Administration dumps thousands of migrants in their towns."
He added: "Texas' busing mission provides direct relief to our local partners in border communities struggling to respond to the record-high levels of illegal immigration enticed by President Biden's reckless open border policies. Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis."
In its latest update dated October 6, Governor Abbott's office reported that, since April 2022, a total of over 12,500 migrants were transported to Washington, D.C. More than 18,500 migrants were taken to New York City since August 2022, while over 13,500 were bussed to Chicago.
Since November last year, more than 3,200 migrants have been taken to Philadelphia, while over 3,200 were put on buses to Denver since May 18, and more than 940 were bussed to Los Angeles since June 14.
The office has dubbed the bussing of migrants to sanctuary cities "Operation Lone Star." Since the launch of the operation, the state said it made 473,900 "illegal immigrant apprehensions" and made over 34,800 arrests, "with more than 31,800 felony charges reported."
Texas also reported seizing over 431 million lethal doses of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that has been linked to thousands of American deaths in recent years. Of a total of over 106,699 drug overdose deaths reported in the U.S. in 2021, the latest data made available by the CDC shows, 75.4 percent were linked to opioids.
According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Southwest Land Border Encounters, the U.S. Border Patrol and Office of Field Operation made over 2.2 million encounters between January and August 2023.
The number of migrant crossings in the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas has been rising recently after slowing down following the end of Title 42, despite fears the end of the pandemic-era emergency statute might encourage migrants to attempt the journey.
At the end of September, thousands of migrants were crossing the border into cities like El Paso and Eagle Pass, leaving the two cities to find places to shelter them.
Abbott has blamed the rise in crossings on President Joe Biden, accusing him of allowing "this historic border crisis to escalate," as he recently wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration addressed the migrant influx at the southern border announcing that it was waiving 26 federal laws to permit more border wall construction in Texas, building up on a Trump administration initiative.
Update 10/12/23, 5:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a comment from Abbott's office.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more