After Chicago, New York City and Washington, Philadelphia appears to be the next target for one of Texas Governor Greg Abbott's immigrant buses. The newly re-elected governor in the Lone Star State announced that he would continue to send migrants to 'sanctuary cities' and add new destinations after the midterms.
A spokesperson for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney told Fox News that the city received no notice from Texas on the situation. It was instead a community organization that alerted them that a chartered a vehicle with 52 immigrants from Del Rio, Texas had been sent to Philadelphia.
This information was relayed to us from a community partner organization as Texas officials have not coordinated with the city. We do not have an exact location of where the bus will disembark, nor do we have any specific information about those on board, nor do we know if other buses are planned.
Expecting buses since summer
However, the mayor's team was not unprepared. According to several officials, City officials had been planning for the arrival of such buses since the summer, seeing that they were arriving in nearby cities led by Democratic politicians.
Over the past week, Abbott recapped the immigrants sent to the three 'sanctuary cities' and again called for action from the Biden Administration in the face of a "historic border crisis" in Texas.
As of today, Texas has bused over 13,000 migrants to sanctuary cities:
➡️ Over 8,300 to D.C.
➡️ Over 3,500 to NYC
➡️ Over 1,100 to ChicagoTexas is stepping up to respond to Pres. Biden’s historic border crisis allowing an influx of people from Mexico into Texas.
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) November 7, 2022
Abbott announces additional buses
Governor Abbot also announced the dispatch of the 300th bus sent to Chicago, warning that "as Biden does nothing, Texas will continue taking unprecedented action to relieve our overwhelmed border communities & secure the border."
The 300th Texas bus of migrants just left for Chicago.
As Biden does nothing, Texas will continue taking unprecedented action to relieve our overwhelmed border communities & secure the border.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 11, 2022