Migrants from Texas arrive in Chicago amid political battle over US immigration policy

Texas' Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has sent 75 asylum-seekers to the US state of Illinois amid the bitter political battle over the immigration policy of Democratic President Joe Biden.

The group -- who were seated in two buses and hailed from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela -- arrived in Chicago's Union Station on Wednesday night.

The ride, which cost Texas $12 million dollars, is the latest chapter of the bitter political battle between Republicans and Democrats over US immigration policy.

The asylum-seekers are being bused from Texas as part of a strategy launched by Abbott this year to share the influx of people from outside the US with major Democratic-run cities in protest to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

Abbot had previously used buses to drop off thousands of migrants in Washington, DC, and New York City.

US Border Patrol has made more than 1.8 million arrests of asylum-seekers in fiscal year 2022, which began Oct. 1, 2021.

“President Biden’s inaction at our southern border continues putting the lives of Texans, and Americans, at risk and is overwhelming our communities,” Abbott said in a statement on Wednesday, adding, “To continue providing much-needed relief to our small, overrun border towns, Chicago will join fellow sanctuary cities Washington, DC and New York City as an additional drop-off location.”

Meanwhile, one of the asylum-seekers on the bus complained about the trip's hardships and the ill-treatment they suffered at the hands of US authorities.

"We just left Venezuela, went to Colombia, going through the jungle in Panama," said one migrant, William Mijares, adding, "We were not treated like humans. We were treated like the worst kind of people in the world and we don't understand why, but that's the way they consider us."

Meanwhile, Chicago's Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot slammed Abbott on Thursday afternoon, calling Texas' governor a "man without any morals".

"Let me say loud and clear to Greg Abbott and his enablers in Texas with these continued political stunts, Gov. Abbott has confirmed what unfortunately many of us had known already, that he is a man without any morals, humanity or shame," Lightfoot said.

"[Abbott] is trying to create crises in Democratic led cities to demonstrate his toughness," Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot also said that Abbott chose to "inhumanely load them onto buses" and send them to Chicago without "any regard for what the next steps are."

"These are human beings, moms and dads, young children, elders, who deserve our respect and dignity. They're not cargo. They are not chattel. They're human beings, just like you and me," she said. "Governor Abbott's racist and xenophobic practices of expulsion have only amplified the challenges many of these migrants have experienced on their journey to find a safe place. The governor's actions are not just inhumane, they are unpatriotic."

Lightfoot told reporters that it is "my prayer" that Abbott "finds some humanity" and doesn't continue to send buses of migrants to Chicago, but, she added, if he does, "we're ready."

“We are doing everything we can to ensure that the organizations who are supporting them receive the assistance they need,” US Representative Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, said in a statement. “These are families who have fled poverty, persecution and violence. They have come to the United States in pursuit of a better life, just like millions of immigrants have done before.”

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