EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A congresswoman from El Paso is joining colleagues in Illinois in denouncing unannounced migrant flights from Texas as a political stunt by Gov. Greg Abbott.
“We write together, unified in our call for Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott to stop politicizing the relocation of migrants and asylum seekers and take seriously the need to more extensively coordinate efforts between border cities like El Paso and interior cities like Chicago,” Democratic U.S. Reps. Veronica Escobar of Texas, and Delia C. Ramirez and Jesus Garcia of Illinois said in a joint statement on Thursday.
They were referring to a flight that took off from El Paso earlier this week and delivered 120 migrants to an airport in Chicago.
Abbott’s office confirmed the Dec. 20 flight: “Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue taking historic action to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made (migrant) crisis,” the Texas governor’s office said in a statement.
Chicago was the migrants’ destination of choice and they signed waivers saying they wanted to go there, the governor’s office said.
The Democrats urged Abbott to “foster collaboration” with other leaders and government entities instead of “sending buses and planes from El Paso to Chicago without complete manifests, to undesignated landing sites in the cold Chicago winter.”