Greg Abbott's controversial programme to bus asylum seekers to Democratic-run cities has reportedly stalled due to a significant decline in border crossings. The Texas governor claimed at the Republican National Convention in July that buses were still rolling, but an NBC News investigation found that major cities such as Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago have not received any buses from Texas this year.
Abbott began the busing initiative in 2022, sending over 100,000 migrants to various cities, including 37,100 to New York and 30,800 to Chicago, at a cost of $148 million. However, the number of unauthorised crossings has halved since December 2023, falling to a three-year low in June after President Joe Biden signed an executive order limiting immigration.
Josh Goldfein of the Legal Aid Society of New York noted that buses now arrive much less frequently because there are not enough migrants to fill them. Abbott's office attributed the decline to his own actions, but US Customs and Border Protection credited Biden's order, which closes the border when daily asylum seeker numbers exceed 2,500.
