Migrants
Free bus rides for migrants to Washington, New York and Chicago begin in Texas border town
Rick Jervis
USA TODAY
- Texas officials have recently bused nearly 11,000 migrants to other states.
- Critics call it a political ploy that uses migrants as pawns at a cost to state taxpayers of more than $12 million.
- “Why wouldn’t [migrants] take advantage of this? And just leave the politics out," said the director of a migrant respite center of the busing.
DEL RIO, Texas – Just past 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, two white-and-green-striped U.S. Border Patrol vans pulled up outside the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition, a migrant respite center, and 19 asylum-seekers spilled out.
Some looked dazed and were speckled with dried mud. One woman carried an infant on her hip. All looked exhausted.