Chaos at the border becomes an exit for some migrants

Report Issue

Please complete the required fields.

Your Name

Email

Reason (required)
This post contains broken linksPost has incorrect informationPost has spamCopyright IssueOther

Description

Submit

When Texas and Arizona’s Republican governors began busing immigrants out of their states last year, they said it was in protest of the Democrats’ “reckless” federal immigration policies.

Democrats criticized the tactic as dehumanizing, especially when migrants were misled about where they were going. But some cities and states led by Democrats later warmed to the practice, most recently Arizona’s new governor, Katie Hobbs.

“If we’re spending money to bus people, why not just get them to their final destination?” Hobbs told reporters at a recent press conference.

Here’s how the politics of transporting migrants has evolved.

Immigrants have always moved around
People have always traveled within the U.S. once they claim asylum at the border.

In the border town of Del Rio, Texas, for instance, the non-profit Val Verde Humanitarian Border Coalition receives immigrants directly from the U.S. Border Patrol station.

From there, they only have a few options for getting to their final destinations.

“You have to understand the locale here. The nearest major city is in San Antonio. That’s a three-hour drive,” says VVHBC operations director Tiffany Burrow.
A couple of Greyhound buses depart Del Rio each day. The local airport recently lost service after American Airlines pulled out. The non-profit also works directly with a private transportation company. VVHBC would typically help recent arrivals figure out where they needed to go, and then a family member would purchase them a ticket.

But in 2022, the non-profits and aid groups at the border had trouble meeting basic needs for the record number of people trying to come to the U.S., per federal data.

Buses operated by the state are “incredibly useful,” says Burrow.
Some bus passengers also appreciate the free ride.

“I didn’t know that the ticket to get here cost $500 dollars,” says Selina, a migrant traveling from Chile who caught a state-run bus from Texas to Philadelphia. NPR is not using her name because her immigration case is pending.

Selina, who wants to meet up with her brother-in-law de ella in New Jersey, tells NPR in Spanish that when she got into the United States, a guard told her about the free buses and showed her where to get in line for one. Otherwise, “I couldn’t pay,” she says.