In a self-described attempt to “bring the border to Biden,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott is loading migrants onto buses and driving them to Washington, DC, with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey joining suit more recently. Already suffering abuse at the hands of the U.S. immigration system, asylum seekers must now be subjected to the cruel whims of the governor as he vies for attention as a conservative media darling. It comes as the Biden administration attempts to lift Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allowed for the expulsion of 1.8 million migrants to Mexico since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Ironically, many of the bus passengers were understandably pleased to receive a free trip away from the southern border and have been able to begin the process of settling in, thanks to the heroic efforts of some DC-area volunteer organizations like Catholic Charities DC, Sanctuary DMV, Free Them All VA, and DC Ward 1 Mutual Aid. Less happy was Abbott’s Texas electorate, the desired audience for his spectacle, who footed the transportation bill along with the state’s misuse of COVID relief funds. Abbott has since resorted to trying to crowdfund donations from the citizens of Texas.

While Abbott’s racist stunt mostly backfired, it stands among other, far more harmful initiatives, such as his recent short-lived policy of imposing additional inspections of all trucks crossing the border. After backlogs clogged highways for miles, truck drivers responded by blocking off both sides of a major bridge in protest. The whole fiasco cost the U.S. nearly $9 billion in GDP and the equivalent of 77,019 job-years and turned up a grand total of zero drugs or weapons.

Unfortunately, political theater surrounding immigration does not exist only on the right side of the aisle; Democrats who performatively wept over Trump’s “kids in cages” collectively gave up on opposition to the human rights abuses sanctioned under Title 42 the moment Biden was sworn into office. On the legal basis alone, DHS’s horrifying practice of detaining children in unsanitary hotels before arbitrarily choosing when and where to expel them violates the 1997 Flores Agreement and directly flouts international laws protecting refugees such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

CPUSA stands in solidarity with the asylum seekers, whose human rights have been violated by the current and past administrations, and the truck drivers whose livelihoods were stomped on by Governor Abbott’s shameless xenophobia. We highlight the need for solidarity between them and Texans angered by a wasteful and callous administration whose policy has been disastrous for the working class. We denounce this racist stunt that puts migrants at risk of further violent acts at the hands of U.S. police and ICE agents.

Image:  Buses arrive in D.C., screenshot of NBC News broadcast, 4-13-22.

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