Texas: We're Going To Bus Undocumented Migrants To D.C.; Florida: Hold My Beer

[Zorro]

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis race to pull the most reactionary culture war stunt in response to the Biden administration's decision to lift Title 42 border restrictions.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appear locked in a competition: Who can best channel the latest free-floating right-wing grievance into state policy? The rules of this game are simple: Every time one of these governors releases a salvo into the nation’s culture wars, the other has to match it or exceed it. Voting rights, the pandemic, reproductive rights — on issue after issue, these two have raced to put forth the most reactionary policy possible. Now, with Joe Biden announcing plans to lift his predecessor’s pandemic-era border restrictions, a policy known as Title 42, the GOP governors have turned to immigration.

On Wednesday, Abbott announced plans to bus undocumented immigrants to the steps of the United States Capitol as a kind of protest against the “Biden border disaster,” as he described it. “To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the administration,” Abbott said in a press conference in Weslasco, near the U.S. border with Mexico, “Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden administration to Washington, D.C.”

Though he presented the plan as something “no state has done in American history to secure our border,” it doesn’t quite go as far as he claimed; as the Texas Tribune reported, the program as proposed would be voluntary for the migrants, and they could only get on the buses or planes to D.C. after they’d been processed by the Department of Homeland Security. Still, Abbott’s plot was immediately denounced by immigration advocates. “If Abbott focused on solutions instead of stunts,” Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Abbott for the governor’s mansion this fall, said in a statement, “then Texas could have made some real progress on the issue over the last seven years.”

Not to be outdone, though, DeSantis teased his own plan later Wednesday suggesting that he, too, could bus out undocumented immigrants — to Biden’s home state of Delaware. “What we’re doing in Florida is saying, ‘We’re not gonna let the recklessness of those policies impact our state,’” DeSantis said. “If Biden is dumping people…we now have money where we can reroute them to sanctuary states like Delaware.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/ron-desantis-greg-abbott-title-42-immigration

[lame54]

1. More meth for the rest of them

[usedtobedemgurl]

9. Are you saying undocumented workers...

Are meth addicts?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Gov. Greg Abbott's plan to bus migrants to Washington, D.C., will be voluntary

This is a stunt https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/06/greg-abbott-texas-border-title-42/

But soon after the press conference, Abbott's office released more details about the plan that struck a notably softer tone.

The governor's office clarified that the program is completely voluntary for migrants and would happen only after they had been processed and released by the Department of Homeland Security. And in addition to buses, Abbott also ordered the state to charter flights to transport migrants to the nation's capital. The migrants would have to show documentation that they had already been processed by DHS. Many immigration advocates have noted that providing transportation services for asylum-seekers to reach their final destination is something the state should invest in.

Abbott's announcement led to immediate criticism from both his left and his right. Immigration rights groups said his rhetoric was still dangerous.

"Any forcible busing of migrants across the country would be outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional," Kate Huddleston, a staff attorney at ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. "Given that Abbott cannot dictate where people are sent, he has already backpedaled on this heinous plan, announcing that it will be only voluntary."

Greg's own staff made clear that persons can only bussed if they agree and only after they have been processed and released by DHS

Link to tweet

No one will bus without their consent and only after being processed by DHS. This is a rather lame stunt

[UTUSN]

7. Kidnapping yesterday, consent today. These 2 pos wingnuts arrgh

[7wo7rees]

3. Oh FFSake, ABBOTT!! HOW MUCH MORE AWFUL CAN YOU GET WHILE YOU SLAM

YOUR HANDS DOWN ON YOUR WHEELCHAIR OR THE DAMNED TABLE IN FRONT OF YOUR SORRY ASS?? GOOD GOSH ALMIGHTY, YOU MUST BE TOSSED IN NOVEMBER!!!!

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Isn't forcibly transporting & abandoning someone against their will a form of kidnapping ?

Sounds like TX could be about to break the law.

[Dial H For Hero]

8. Per the article, going on the buses will be voluntary.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Texas "voluntary", we can assume. nt

[C_U_L8R]

5. Kidnapping political hostages

This will get interesting when they take their captives across state lines.

Even with consent, it seems like coercion or blackmail.

[struggle4progress]

6. meh. Abbott hopes to win the hearts of Texas' Gas Oil & Petroleum gang

by threatening to sending a convoy of hundreds of empty buses to DC to drive in endless circles around the beltway

[tanyev]

10. "Wait...you're offering me a free bus ride out of this hellhole state? Yes, please!"

[FSogol]

11. Bragging about an interstate kidnapping plan?

Since every single restaurant, construction company, farm, brewery, and retail store in the VA/MD/DC area is hiring, please proceed.

[Deep State Witch]

13. We Have A Labor Shortage Here in the DC Area

We have a labor shortage in the DC area, because a lot of people left service jobs during the lockdown. We'll be happy to put them to work!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

14. Gov. Abbott's threat to bus migrants to Washington isn't quite what he made it out to be

Greg lied about his program. It is voluntary

Link to tweet

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Gov-Abbott-s-threat-to-bus-migrants-to-17064833.php?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=twitter.com

When Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that Texas would transport apprehended migrants to Washington, D.C., he left the impression that people would be forcibly shipped off to the U.S. Capitol as soon as they crossed the border illegally and were rounded up by state authorities.

But a few hours after Abbott rolled out the plan at a press conference, the governor's office revealed several new details that painted a much different picture. In a news release, Abbott's office clarified that Texas would only transport migrants to Washington — and other destinations outside the state — if they wanted to go there and had already been processed and released by federal authorities.

Asked Thursday by Fox News host Dana Perino about the plan, Abbott said forced bus trips would run afoul of the law.

“Dana, if I were to go to Washington, D.C. and put you on a bus and take you down to the Rio Grande Valley, that would be kidnapping,” Abbott said. “Same thing applies to anybody who refuses to get onto a bus. That would be kidnapping, even though it would be by a law enforcement agency. So, there are laws that have to be followed in this process.”

Link to tweet