Bus ban? Tex. gov now sends jetloads

A plane carrying more than 120 migrants from the Texas border landed in Chicago Tuesday — the latest escalation between the embattled border state and sanctuary city mayors who have begun resisting the busloads of migrants sent to their streets.

The plane was sent to circumvent steps taken by the Chicago City Council to keep Texas from busing migrants to the city, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said, and was probably the first of many to begin flying across the country.

“Because [Chicago] Mayor [Brandon] Johnson is failing to live up to his city’s ‘Welcoming City’ ordinance by targeting migrant buses from Texas, we are expanding our operation to include flights to Chicago,” a spokesperson said.

More than 23,000 migrants have been sent to Chicago from Texas since Abbott’s busing program began in April 2022. Like at the border, shelters in the city have been left bursting with migrants while taxpayers are forced to foot the towering bill.

A recently passed Chicago law — which Abbott’s office said was “targeting migrant buses” — has left bus operators facing steep fines or impounds if they don’t drop their passengers in designated locations or fail to fill out paperwork.

Though Abbott was able to work around the ordinance through the airlines, those 120 migrants are a piddling drop in the bucket compared to the 1 million migrants encountered by Texas border agents in 2023 alone — or nearly 84,000 flowing into the state per month, according to the Texas Tribune.

The White House criticized Abbott’s latest move, accusing him of using migrants as props. More than 80,000 migrants have been sent across the country so far by Abbott’s buses. In New York, two buses carrying migrants arrived at the Port Authority Thursday.