Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, calling his migrant busing policy a “gross failure of governance.”
Mr. Mayorkas, who is facing impeachment proceedings in the House over his handling of the illegal immigration crisis, accused Mr. Abbott, a Republican, of not working with Democratic-led city officials overwhelmed by the influx of migrants.
“I want to point out one fundamental problem here: We have a governor in Texas who refuses to cooperate with other governors and local officials,” Mayorkas said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” The fact is that there is one person.”
Mayorkas stressed the need for the country to “come together” on immigration, saying “refusing to cooperate with local and state officials is a flagrant failure of governance.”
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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on November 15, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Mr. Abbott last year began busing migrants to New York City and other sanctuary cities in protest of the Biden administration's border policies. Mr. Abbott's office has since sent about 27,000 migrants into New York City, which he said was intended to ease pressure on besieged border communities.
The illegal immigration crisis, which hit a record in December with more than 300,000 people encountered at the border in a single month, is straining Democratic-led cities that lack the resources to house migrants. New York state and the city of Chicago tried to drop off migrants in surrounding suburbs, but complained that they could not accommodate them and threatened to send migrant buses back to the Texas-Mexico border.
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A group of immigrants deported from Texas step off a bus near a Greyhound station on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said last week that the city is at “breaking point” with 161,000 migrants arriving since spring 2022, including some who arrived on their own. The mayor issued an executive order restricting when and where buses could drop off migrants, but a “loophole” in the city's order was discovered after migrants were dropped off at a station in New Jersey and then departed for the Big Apple. It has been reported.
“We're dealing with a bully right now, but compliance with the law is all on the table,” Adams said Tuesday of Abbott.
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Mayorkas told MSNBC that federal teams have been sent to Chicago, Denver and New York to help manage immigrant arrivals and ensure that eligible immigrants receive work permits as quickly as possible.
“We have also been successful in obtaining funding from the Legislature to support the city, and requested additional funding to do so in our supplemental budget request,” Mayorkas said.
House Republicans have accused Mayorkas of worsening the border crisis under his leadership. The Homeland Security Committee will hold its first impeachment hearing against the director on January 10, as Republicans accuse Mr. Mayorkas of refusing to enforce immigration laws.
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Mayorkas said he would “certainly” cooperate with the committee's investigation and “continue to do my job.”
Fox News Digital’s Timothy HJ Nerozzi, Anders Hagstrom, Houston Keene and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
