Texas may implement a plan to bus immigrants directly to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation processing, according to media reports.
The move would be a departure from a state program (part of Operation Lone Star) that has bused thousands of migrants to sanctuary cities, officials told the New York Post. It has not yet been approved by Gov. Greg Abbott.
Fox News Digital reached out to Abbott’s office and ICE.
“As long as we are a border state, we will always remain involved in border security,” a Texas government official told the paper. “We spend a lot of taxpayer money to have equivalent deterrence at our borders, and we can’t just walk away.”
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Migrants board a city bus to a shelter reception center after traveling from Del Rio, Texas, to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City on May 13, 2023. (Victor J. Blue)
Mr Abbott has been particularly active in the fight against illegal immigration, busing migrants to the Blue City to draw attention to the border crisis. Under the proposed plan, buses chartered by Texas would be taken from border cities to federal detention centers to help ICE agents quickly process migrants, the newspaper reported.
Texas continues a legal battle with the Biden administration over efforts to curb illegal immigration. On Wednesday, an appeals court ruled that states have the right to build razor-edge border walls to deter immigration.
Officials are also offering land to the incoming Trump administration to build deportation centers to hold criminal illegal immigrants.
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“My office has identified several lands and is ready to make this happen on the first day of President Trump’s presidency,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said during a visit to the border on Tuesday. Ta.
Officials have also warned that unaccompanied migrant children could become entangled near the border. On Thursday, a 10-year-old boy from El Salvador told state police in Maverick County, Texas, that he was lost and left behind by smugglers.
Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez posted to X that the boy was holding a cellphone and crying. The boy said his parents were in the United States.
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On Sunday, police encountered an unaccompanied 2-year-old girl from El Salvador holding a piece of paper with her phone number and name written on it. She told authorities that her parents were also in the United States.
That morning, state troopers also encountered a group of 211 illegal immigrants in Maverick County. The group included 60 unaccompanied children between the ages of 2 and 17, as well as six migrants of special interest from Mali and Angola.
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“Regardless of political views, it is unacceptable for children to be exposed to dangerous criminal human trafficking networks,” Olivarez wrote at the time. “With record numbers of unaccompanied children reaching record numbers and hundreds of thousands missing, there is no one other than the men and women working on the front lines every day to ensure the safety of these children. There’s no one there.”
“The reality is that many children are being exploited and trafficked and will never be heard from again,” he said.
