The Biden administration is contemplating limiting the ability of undocumented migrants to travel within the country, asking them to remain in Texas while their eligibility to seek asylum is determined.
A record number of people, nearly 91,000 migrants, crossed the border illegally last month.
Through the “remain in Texas” policy, the administration wants to “advance its goals of quickly deporting families who fail initial asylum screenings” as well as deter families from crossing the southern border, as U.S. officials told the Los Angeles Times.
The officials said the policy could also be implemented in other border states and that immigrants would be tracked through tracking devices such as ankle brackets.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot wrote on social media that the “scam” policy was tried and shot down by a judge years ago.
“We will send Biden the same swift justice. And, we will add even more buses of migrants to Washington, D.C.,” he said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Robyn Barnard, director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, was not supportive of the policy, saying, “People should not be punished for their manner of entry to seek asylum.”
The Biden administration’s move follows New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ moments of candidness about grappling with a rise in the number of migrants in his city.
“Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,” Adams said during a town hall meeting. “This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City.”
He said that more than 110,000 migrants have poured in while the city racked up a $12 billion deficit. Adams blamed Abbott for busing people to the city.
According to The Texas Tribune, Abbott has been sending migrants to Democrat-led cities since April 2022. Through this strategy, which he calls Operation Lone Star, at least 13,000 people have been transported to New York, as Abbott claimed in a social media post.
In an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime” Monday, Abbott said, “The mayor may have made it to be mayor of New York, but he could not last a week in Texas.”
He pointed out that cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles only “deal with a fraction of the burden Texas border towns face each day.”
Abbott’s press secretary told Fox News that liberal cities were quick to tout their status as sanctuary cities until Texas chose to bus migrants to help their overwhelmed border communities.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Adams was right, and that “New York City deserves better.”
McCarthy added that Senate Democrats should follow the House Republicans’ lead and move to pass the Secure the Border Act, which seeks to end catch and release and strengthen the asylum process.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press gaggle on Air Force One over the weekend that the federal government is coordinating with cities that are managing the arrival of migrants.
She said that New York state and New York City have been given $140 million in federal funding through the Department of Homeland Security in this fiscal year. The burden of reforming the broken immigration system rests with Congress, she said.
“The president has done all that he can from his perch,” she added.
Adams said he last spoke to President Joe Biden earlier this year. He added that he did speak to the White House chief of staff on Monday, when he asked the White House to shorten the time it takes for migrants to attain authorization to work.
“We have thousands of jobs, that’s the irony of it,” he said on a morning news show Tuesday. “We needed lifeguards over the summer, we could have filled those jobs.”