by Bethany Blankley
The war of words between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott escalated this week as buses of foreign nationals who’ve entered the U.S. illegally arrive in Adams’ city. The buses arriving at the Port Authority generally carry between 50 and 100 people. Abbott says that’s compared to the more than 5,000 apprehended a day in the five Border Patrol sectors in Texas at the southern border.
Border Patrol data for July indicates that 141,513 people were apprehended or recorded as gotaways illegally entering Texas.
Abbott last week invited Adams to visit the southern border in Texas to see firsthand the impact of what he calls “Biden’s border crisis.” To date, Adams hasn’t accepted the invitation.
“I already called all my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their votes,” Adams said. “And I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old-fashioned door knocking because we have to, for the good of America, we have to get him out of office.”
In response, Abbott told Fox News, “I kind of feel like Clinton Eastwood. Go ahead, make my day.”
His campaign spokesperson told The Center Square, “We welcome the Mayor of New York City coming to Texas to help his friend Beto O’ Rourke.”
Democrat O’Rourke, who’ faces Abbott in the race for governor, is trailing in the polls. He previously ran for U.S. Senate in Texas and lost to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Abbott called Adams’ complaints a “rank hypocrisy” because of New York City’s “sanctuary city” status, in which Abbott said city officials are supposed to “welcome illegal immigrants. And now, once they have to deal with the reality of it, they’re suddenly flummoxed and they cannot handle it.”
Adams, who’s tweeted pictures of himself greeting the buses as they arrive, said, “Greg Abbott used innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis. New Yorkers are stepping up to fix it – that’s our city’s values. But we need the federal government’s help – money, technical assistance and more.”
In response, Abbott tweeted, “Mayor Adams has no idea what Texas deals with every day at our southern border. Despite its sanctuary city policy, NYC can’t handle even a fraction of the chaos Biden has created. This should be a wake-up call to the Biden administration to do its job and secure the border.”
He also said, “Biden’s open border policies have led to record levels of illegal crossings, deadly drugs, and human smuggling.”
Texas has so far bused more than 6,500 people to Washington, D.C., and now New York City, since April.
The Democratic mayors of New York and Washington, D.C., Abbott said, “have now seen a fraction of what Texas faces daily. They should call on Biden to honor his duty and preserve America’s national security.”
Abbott’s press secretary, Renae Eze, told The Center Square, “What’s horrific is the thousands of illegal immigrants overrunning and overwhelming our border communities with populations smaller than a New York City borough, and Mayor Adams is hypocritically upset about welcoming a few dozen into his sanctuary city.”
Eze said everyone on the buses “willingly chose to go to New York City, having signed a voluntary consent waiver, available in multiple languages, upon boarding that they agreed on the destination.”
And if the mayor “wants a solution to this crisis,” she said, “he should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border.
“The Biden Administration is allowing historic levels of illegal immigrants, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to surge into our state and dumping migrants in our border towns with little to no help provided,” she added. “Texas continues stepping up to respond to this crisis by deploying Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers, building our own border wall … and now sending illegal immigrants back to the border.”
Since Abbott launched the state’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, a multi-agency effort has apprehended 290,700 foreign nationals who entered Texas illegally through Mexico, made more than 18,000 criminal arrests, and brought more than 15,400 felony charges. Texas DPS agents have seized over 325.9 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill every adult and child in the United States. These numbers exclude those of federal law enforcement agencies.
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Bethany Blankley is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Greg Abbott” by Greg Abbott. Photo “Eric Adams” by Mayor Eric Adams. Background Photo “Bus” by Loco Steve. CC BY 2.0.
