According to reports, around one-fifth of the migrants being bused from El Paso to New York do so voluntarily and are not being forced to go.
The number of people trying to cross the border illegally has overwhelmed Blake Barrow, CEO of the El Paso Rescue Mission charity, but the migrants have been more than glad to accept Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s offer to bus them to New York City.
In an open letter published on Wednesday, Barrow said that 20% of them wanted to visit New York. To help individuals who want to go there, the city has begun chartering buses to New York.
Barrow’s group is striving to assist the new arrivals as the border situation worsens to the point where 1,050 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, arrive daily.
He said that the shelter is overburdened by the sheer number of individuals that arrive each day, and the staff is concerned that they won’t be able to feed and clothe everyone who needs it.
In order to accommodate the additional guests, cots have already been put up in the chapel at the El Paso Rescue Mission. Local food banks now have empty shelves and shelters are overflowing with beds.
The city of El Paso is unable to provide enough housing or other help due to the enormous number of migrants arriving there.
Clearly, a coordinated federal response is required for this issue, but no one from Washington has consulted us, Barrow wrote.
Barrow mirrored El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, who earlier this week justified his decision to transport busloads of migrants to New York City by saying he was merely attempting to assist them in getting to their intended destination.
According to Leeser, immigrants aren’t only coming to the United States to settle in his border community; rather, they want to go to other parts of the nation, maybe to locations where they have relatives or other sponsors.
People aren’t coming to El Paso, according to Leeser. They will be arriving in America.
Before “we will take them and assist them reach to their goal,” he said that officials in El Paso interact with migrants and ask them where they want to travel.
In an interview with ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning, he said, “That’s been incredibly critical that we don’t send someone where they don’t want to go.” “We make careful to assist them,”
“We put them on buses with meals, see that they reach their destination, and see that we always continue to meet and treat individuals like humans,” the statement goes.
The mayor’s assertion that almost all of the newcomers wished to be transported by bus to bigger cities was corroborated by Mario D’Agostino, the town’s deputy health manager.
The overwhelming majority of them have asked to travel to New York City, by far. Several sizable groups have also shown interest in visiting Chicago,’ the speaker said.
Since August 23, El Paso has deployed 51 buses carrying 2,365 migrants to New York City; seven additional buses departed on Saturday for the Big Apple.
The busing scheme is a component of a Republican-led campaign against the Biden administration’s border policies while attempting to reduce the migrant influx in border states.
More than 13,000 migrants have been transported by bus to Chicago, Illinois, New York City, and Washington, D.C. by Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey.
Last Monday, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis flew migrants from his state to the opulent Martha’s Vineyard island off the coast of Massachusetts.
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, has been one of the most outspoken opponents of busing, and the programmes have caused serious issues for officials in the Democrat-led cities.
Adams remarked in an interview with ABC on Sunday that “this is an American catastrophe that we need to address” and that “some of the governors in the southern states” were to blame for the humanitarian situation.
According to authorities in NYC, the effort to locate homes for the arriving migrants has reached a “breaking point” in the city.
23 emergency shelters have already been established by the city, and according to Adams, 38 more will be built to address the growing problem.
Adams not only criticised the southern governors but also attributed the death of a migrant woman who committed herself inside a municipal shelter on Sunday on them.
The governors’ failing was in sending individuals on a multiday bus trip without enough food, medical care, or other essentials while instructing them that this harsh treatment was required. The failing, he said, is that.
The statement started, “The hundreds of asylum seekers we have witnessed come in our city came to our nation wanting a better life. Unfortunately, a woman seeking refuge committed herself yesterday at one of our institutions.