Immigrants, in the midst of the crossfire between Republicans and Democrats before the elections

First modification: 09/16/2022 – 12:08

For months now, local Republican officials, including powerful Texas Governor Greg Abbott, have been moving immigrants to Democratic strongholds across the country.

Abbott’s office says that since April some 10,000 immigrants have been sent, most by buses, to New York, Washington and Chicago. A transfer without any kind of coordination with the receiving states.

Most are Venezuelans who are processing their request for political asylum, many do not know where they are landing and Texas does not notify that it is sending them either. In Chicago, the Illinois Coalition for Migrant and Refugee Rights has helped many of them.

“Three weeks ago two buses arrived. They were left at the train station,” says Artemio Arreola, political director of the Illinois Coalition. “There we mobilized with the organizations in coordination with the city, and then they went to a shelter. Since then more buses have continued to arrive. Most of them are people who were allowed to enter, they were given a court date to continue their asylum request. Before, all these people had to wait in Mexico. Now they let it through, and what the Texas government is doing is that, since so many are passing through, instead of leaving them there, they are sending them in a strategic political way to use them. It’s not illegal, it’s immoral,” he says.

The border, “a sieve”, according to the Republicans

This occurs in the middle of the mid-term electoral campaign. Republicans accuse President Joe Biden of having turned the border with Mexico into a sieve and use migrants as an instrument of electoral pressure.

“Here they are welcoming you. Labor is needed. But it is causing chaos because of the lack of housing. Hotels have been challenged. Citizens and all agencies of the state, county and this and other cities where they arrive are available to help. But definitely the Republican Party, especially these governors, are trying -because I don’t know how far it will turn out for them- to use this crisis to position themselves politically as anti-immigrant authorities. I hope that the citizenry does not allow it ”, he underlines.

Precisely in Chicago this Friday Kamala Harris will campaign, given the circumstance that a few weeks ago, the governor of Texas Greg Abbot boasted of having sent two buses of migrants next to the residence of the vice president in Washington.

“Vice President Harris claims our border is ‘secure’ and denies there is a crisis. We are sending migrants to her backyard to urge the Biden Administration to do its job and secure the border,” the Texas governor tweeted.

DeSantis, also a candidate for re-election as Florida governor, is seen as a potential rival to former President Donald Trump should he run for the White House in 2024.

The Republican denounced the “farce” of the Democratic states that advocate the reception of migrants.

“As soon as we deliver even a tiny fraction of what border cities have to put up with every day to their door, they go ballistic,” DeSantis said in a speech Thursday.

“Residents of Martha’s Vineyard should be excited,” Christina Pushaw of DeSantis’ communications team quipped on Twitter on Wednesday. “Illegal immigrants will make the city more diverse, which is a strength, right?”