Texas to funnel 'willing' migrants to capital

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday said that the southern state will send to the nation's capital by bus and plane willing migrants who have been processed and released from federal custody.

Abbott had said at a news conference that Texas would dispatch state troopers in riot gear to the southern border to round up migrants and bus them straight to Washington. But an executive order from the governor afterward had a much softer tone and said the transportation will be voluntary by bus or aircraft.

A news release from the governor's office said that "to board a bus or flight, a migrant must volunteer to be transported and show documentation from DHS(Department of Homeland Security)".

Abbott said he was doing so in response to the US government's decision to lift Title 42-a public health policy introduced in 1944 to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. It was reimplemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and allows authorities to turn away migrants. Former president Donald Trump brought back the order at the onset of the pandemic.

Abbott said that the DHS is projecting as many as 18,000 migrant-crossing apprehensions per day at the end of Title 42 expulsions, which will happen on May 23. That would mean more than half a million border crossings a month.

A growing number of lawmakers in Washington and border officials oppose the lifting of Title 42, concerned that it could lead to a surge at the border that authorities are not prepared to handle.

In its operations report for February, US Customs and Border Patrol encountered 116,678 people at the southwest border, a 2 percent increase over the prior month. Seventy-six percent were single adults.

Abbott also directed the state's Public Safety Department to conduct enhanced safety inspections of vehicles as they cross international ports of entry into Texas to "help ensure that Texans are not endangered by unsafe vehicles and their unsafe drivers".

Abbott acknowledged that the move will dramatically slow traffic at the Texas border with Mexico, which is Texas' largest trading partner.

Abbott also plans to create boat blockades on the Rio Grande and install barbed wire in low-river crossings to deter migrants.

The governor's moves are viewed by some as part of his reelection campaign strategy, while others support his decision.

"Give (Washington) DC a taste of what a Texas has had to deal with recently. Maybe then DC will face the border problem head on," one supporter tweeted.

Some conservatives want Abbott to go further by declaring the border situation an "invasion", thus giving the state the authority to turn back migrants.