Migrant busing

Mayorkas: Texas governor’s migrant busing is a ‘failure of governance’

Abbott has been sending a steady flow of buses filled with asylum seekers from Texas to Democratic-led cities including New York, New Jersey and Chicago.

By ANDREW HOWARD

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas took aim at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Wednesday morning, calling his busing of migrants to cities across the country “a remarkable failure of governance.”

“We have one governor, in the state of Texas, who is refusing to cooperate with other governors and other local officials,” Mayorkas said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And it’s a remarkable failure of governance to refuse to cooperate with one’s fellow local and state officials.”

Abbott has been sending a steady flow of buses filled with asylum seekers from Texas to Democratic-led cities including New York, New Jersey and Chicago, leaving local officials scrambling to receive the migrants.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams last week issued an executive order mandating that migrant charter buses from Texas must give notice before their arrival and only arrive within certain hours. In an apparent response and workaround, buses of migrants arrived at train station stops in New Jersey over the weekend. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s office said that migrants were taking the train to New York City.

“We’re dealing with a bully right now, and everything is on the table that conforms with the law,” Adams said on Tuesday.

Federal officials have been dispatched to Chicago, Denver and New York, Mayorkas said, in order to assist those cities “in managing the challenge.”

Tension around immigration is mounting on a number of fronts this week, as House Speaker Mike Johnson and 60 of his fellow Republicans travel to Eagle Pass, Texas, to visit the border and push for legislation to combat the rising influx of migrants. The House Homeland Security Committee is set to begin impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas on Jan. 10, Punchbowl reported on Wednesday morning.

Mayorkas told MSNBC he “certainly” will cooperate with the impeachment hearings. “And I’ll continue to do my work as well,” he said.