Biden Policies Mean Texas Has Spent $3M to Bus Migrants to D.C.

Illegal border crossers getting bused out of Texas to Washington, D.C., by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has already cost Texas taxpayers around $3 million, and that number will likely continue to climb, according to reports.

Abbott has rebuked the Biden administration for burdening Texas border towns with an influx of migrants from the Texas-Mexico southern border, vowing to send those illegal border crossers to D.C. for the nation's capital to assume the burden.

More than 70 buses carrying 2,100 illegals have been sent from Texas to D.C. as of Friday and the plans are continuing, Abbott's office told the Daily Mail.

Earlier this year, Abbott expected there to be as many as 450 buses sent to the capital.

Amid massive migration into Texas under the Biden administration, Abbott started a program last June called Operation Lonestar to protect his constituents.

"Operation Lonestar is doing everything they can to keep our community safe," Abbott said, announcing the program. "But this problem is not going to be fixed until the Biden administration does its job to secure our border and to get this crisis under control."

The costs on Texas taxpayers have been estimated to be around $2.9 million to date, around $1 million of which is being spent to staff security officers on the buses, according to documents obtained from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) by NBC-5 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Abbott has launched a crowdsourcing fundraising campaign, but that is not covering the entire costs of the program, having raised around $115,000 to date, according to the report.

The Del Rio sector has been of particular focus, and former acting Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan told Newsmax last fall that "the U.S. has lost control of the border in the Del Rio sector."

Chief Jason D. Owens tweeted Saturday the region is getting overrun by illegals crossing the border.

"As previously mentioned, the Del Rio Sector accounts for nearly 50% of all large groups apprehended by the US Border Patrol," the tweet read. "Groups of 100 are bad, now we are seeing groups over 200, 300, & even over 400! In the past 48 hours, agents encountered 8 groups totaling 1,780 migrants!"

Some media has estimated the busing plan has cost around $1,400 to $1,600 per migrant, but those figures are calculated from the total cost of the whole program, including security and administrative costs. Reports that show a first-class plane ticket to Washington, D.C., at times less than $1,000 leave out the reality of the security and administrative costs of the program made necessary by border policies.

• DHS Plans to Bus Migrants From Border Towns
• Gov. DeSantis: Florida Bill Will Reroute Illegal Migrants to Sanctuary States