{"id":8420,"date":"2022-07-21T18:20:45","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T18:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8420"},"modified":"2022-07-21T18:20:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T18:20:45","slug":"greg-abbott-spent-1400-a-head-to-bus-migrants-to-d-c-for-a-political-stunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8420","title":{"rendered":"Greg Abbott Spent $1,400 a Head To Bus Migrants to D.C. for a Political Stunt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“In early April, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled<\/a> a controversial plan to send buses full of undocumented immigrants to Washington, D.C. The policy, Abbott said, would “help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it turns out those communities might be stuck footing the hefty bill for Abbott’s busing scheme. According to state records obtained<\/a> by Dallas\u2013Fort Worth’s NBC 5, bussing costs came out to over $1.6 million in April and May. With 1,154 migrants transported during that period, the per-rider cost was roughly $1,400.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s far more expensive than a commercial bus or train ticket would’ve cost<\/a>\u2014a one-way journey from El Paso, Texas, to Washington, D.C., runs somewhere between $200 and $300 as of this article’s writing. It’s also more expensive than a first-class plane ticket from a border town to Washington, which NBC 5 reported<\/a> ranged between $800 and $900. And it’s more than the public spends<\/a> on average to transport a student to school for an entire school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC 5 notes<\/a> that costs are so high in part because the state has hired security guards to staff each bus.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Costs are further inflated<\/a> by the fact that buses drive back to Texas from Washington empty, having dropped off their passengers. Texas, however, gets billed<\/a> for all total mileage.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Abbott’s busing plan is by no mean his only expensive anti-immigrant endeavor. He vowed last year to build a wall along his state’s border with Mexico, initially transferring<\/a> $250 million in state revenues to the project as a “down payment<\/a>.” A donation page for the wall has collected<\/a> $55,322,273 as of May 27\u2014unlikely to make a significant dent, given that a section of former President Donald Trump’s border wall in Texas came out<\/a> to $27 million a mile. Abbott’s border-securing mission, Operation Lone Star, costs<\/a> taxpayers over $2.5 million per week. That effort also left hundreds of migrants in pretrial detention for weeks or months over misdemeanor trespassing charges”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Greg Abbott Spent $1,400 a Head To Bus Migrants to D.C. for a Political Stunt<\/a><\/blockquote>