Texas Gov. Greg Abbott 's administration has spent over $221 million to transport some 120,000 migrants and asylum seekers out of Texas between April 2022 and August 2024, according to the Washington Examiner.
During this time, the migrants were sent mainly to 6 sanctuary cities, including New York, Chicago and Denver.
Records showed the Texas Division of Emergency Management made 750 payments totaling $221,705,637 to the transportation companies. On average, Texas spent $1,847 per person on the bus rides.
The findings align with a lawsuit filed by New York City in January 2024, where the city took legal action against 17 Texas charter bus companies facilitating Texas' actions. The suit claimed the companies had received approximately $1,650 for each migrant they transported to New York City, at least 5 times more than the $291 it says a single one-way ticket cost.
The suit also alleged the bus companies were evading NYC's rules by dropping off migrants in New Jersey and then paying for their transportation costs into the city.
The Texas operation also drew attention over the mismanagement of the crisis with trying conditions in the 40-hour drive to New York, lacking food, water and access to clean bathrooms.
"[Abbott] used innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis," said NYC's Mayor Adams in a tweet in August 2022, when the Texas Administration first started sending the buses into the city.
The state-funded bus rides started in April 2022, as part of Operation Lone Star, when Abbott announced it would drop off migrants at the steps of the Capitol.
"We are sending them to the United States' capital, where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border," said Abbott during a press conference at the time.
As of March of this year, the office of the Texas governor sent over 12,500 migrants to Washington, 39,600 to New York City, 32,500 migrants to Chicago, 3,400 to Philadelphia, 16,900 to Denver and 1,500 migrants to Los Angeles.
As the number of migrants reaching the state from Mexico has decreased significantly, the practice has mostly stopped. According to data obtained by NBC News, no buses were sent during July. The figure compares to the 4,281 people sent in 95 buses in the same month of 2023, as shown in data from the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Numbers have been dropping steadily since the beginning of the year and did so even more after the Biden administration implemented an executive order aimed at further cracking down on unlawful immigration.
In January, the outlet detailed, the Abbott administration sent 156 buses out of state. It dropped in February but went back up in March and April, with authorities sending over 100 buses each month. Figures then began to decline in May (76 buses) and dropped to less than 30 in June. The last one departed the state on June 11 with 25 passengers, half of its capacity.
