Second Texas bus drops off migrants near US Capitol
Second bus of migrants arrives in DC from Texas
A second bus from Texas arrived near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., just before 4:30 a.m. Thursday, transporting more than a dozen illegal immigrants as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's new plan to counter federal immigration policies during an ongoing border crisis.
WASHINGTON - A second bus from Texas arrived near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., just before 4:30 a.m. Thursday, transporting more than a dozen illegal immigrants as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's new plan to counter federal immigration policies during an ongoing border crisis.
Abbott announced last week that he was directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to transport migrants released from federal custody in Texas to the nation’s capital and other locations outside his state.
RELATED: First Texas bus drops off migrants blocks from U.S. Capitol in DC
Fourteen migrants stepped off the bus a block from Union Station on First Street. The migrants are from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Colombia, one man said.
One individual, who identified himself as Juan from Colombia, told Fox News that he flew by plane to Mexico and crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S.
Juan and his friend said they are going to New York to join their friends. Juan said he wants to be a barber.
Capitol Police arrived at around 4:45 a.m. to ask questions. Members of a Catholic charity arrived, waiting for the migrants, who began to walk to Union Station at around 4:47 a.m.
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Thursday's arrival follows that of the first bus, which arrived in the nation's capital Wednesday morning. That bus also carried immigrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Colombia. Fox News learned that they had come from the Del Rio sector in Texas.
According to TDEM, Abbott’s plan is already working. The agency told Fox News on Monday that many of the communities that originally reached out for support – from the Rio Grande Valley to Terrell County – say the federal government stopped dropping immigrants in their towns since Abbott's announcement on April 6.
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TDEM said it dispatched buses over the weekend to border communities where it coordinated with officials to identify these immigrants. The agency added that each bus has the capacity and supplies necessary to carry up to 40 migrants released in Texas communities and transport them to Washington, D.C.
The governor's legal authority to transport busloads of migrants to the U.S. Capitol remains in question. The 2012 Supreme Court case Arizona v. the United States prevents states from making their own immigration policies.
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