Thanks to a public records request made by ABC13's investigative team, we now know exactly how much Texas has spent busing migrants out of state in the past year.

Texas reportedly paid a private company $75.5 million in the span of a year to transport migrants to sanctuary cities across the U.S.

Transaction data provided by the Texas Department of Emergency Management shows the state paid Wynne Transportation $75,561,032.72 from Aug. 19, 2022, through Aug. 23, 2023, to bus migrants out of state.

13 Investigates asked the department for more details on the spending, but our questions were referred to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office.

Abbott’s office did not respond to ABC13’s questions by Tuesday afternoon.

Since April 2022, Texas has bussed nearly 52,000 migrants to Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles, according to a news release from Abbott’s office.

      • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
        0·
        1 year ago

        That’s probably true. But being shipped to a random city way out across a giant country isn’t ok.

        • thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev
          0·
          1 year ago

          There’s a silver lining of good intentions here… Immigration court is different from state to state. Texas only approves 35% of asylum seekers. Meaning if you’re an illegal in Texas wanting a pathway to legal residency, you’re not likely to get it there. Meanwhile, in blue states such as in NY, it’s 69% or higher. I would say majority of asylum seekers are seeking asylum for legitimate reasons. My wife tells stories that are very common to her family and other people from Honduras… The drug cartels rule with impunity, they have had family kidnapped for ransom, seeing people killed by gun violence is very normal, etc.

          Anyways, typically, when USCIS finishes your intake, you have to be released to the custody of a friend or relative who accepts responsibility for you and you are given to their custody in their state of residence. You can’t just ask to be taken to a liberal state, you have to have family there. Republicans are being cute in how they’re dealing with immigration, but for the immigrants themselves, it’s a favorable outcome.