Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s latest anti-immigrant stunt could end up creating more headaches for another Republican governor.
On Wednesday, a bus carrying a group of South and Central American migrants arrived outside the Capitol Hill office building which houses the Washington, DC bureaux of Fox News, NBC News and C-SPAN.
The bus had been chartered by the Texas Department of Emergency Management on Mr Abbott’s orders, and was sent to Washington so the Lone Star State governor could claim to be dropping the non-white asylum seekers at President Joe Biden’s feet.
Last week, Mr Abbott announced plans to forcibly bus all migrants entering Texas to the Capitol steps, but scaled back the plans after it was pointed out that he lacks the authority to compel any migrant to set foot on a bus headed out of his jurisdiction.
Instead, Mr Abbott changed course and said the bus trip to Washington would be voluntary.
A group of migrants who were interview by Newsmax told the right-wing Fox News competitor they had volunteered to accept Mr Abbott’s offer because a trip to Washington gets them closer to their desired destination: Florida.
“They said they are very excited to be here,” said a Newsmax correspondent who interviewed some migrants in the food court of Washington, DC’s Union Station.
Mr Abbott’s scheme could complicate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ plans to copy him and ship migrants who end up on Florida to Washington and other heavily Democratic jurisdictions.
During a 6 April media availability, Mr DeSantis said he would use federal funding made available in previous coronavirus relief legislation to ship migrants to Mr Biden’s home state of Delaware.
