Texas begins year freeing hundreds of immigrants | Videos | America

In the first hours of 2024, hundreds of immigrants landed at Rockford International Airport in Illinois on a Boeing 777 from San Antonio as part of the Texas state's policy of sending asylum seekers to cities led by Democrats.

According to local media, around 1:00 a.m., 355 migrants landed in Rockford and were then transferred to Chicago on chartered buses. The move is part of a campaign by Texas governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, to send thousands of immigrants to Democratic-controlled cities in a bid to ease pressure on their border towns and pressure party members. Texas has announced that “sanctuary cities” are restricting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Monday's events are an apparent response to an executive order by the city of Chicago that fines bus companies that drop off immigrants without notice, a move that mirrored the arrival of 3,000 asylum seekers by New York City last week.

During his first press conference of 2024 this Monday, New York Mayor Eric Adams declared that Abbott was “not on the right side” and added that “New York is the city we're fighting against.” bullies”.

During the conference, City Council Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg added that no Texas bus is in compliance with the ordinance, but the same buses, paid for by the state of Texas, now drop off immigrants at train stations in Texas and ostensibly serve them. with one-way tickets to New York from those stations.

Both Adams and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have stressed the need for federal support to manage the immigration crisis.

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