Immigration

Border Chief Says GOP Governors Are Worsening Crisis by ‘Lying' to Migrants

Chris Magnus said Republican governors are drawing more migrants to the U.S. by pushing falsehoods about the opportunities that await them in Northern cities.

STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

 The country’s top border official blamed Republican governors for drawing more migrants to the U.S. by promising them free bus rides north to places like New York, Washington, D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. 

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus said in an interview that in some cases, the governors of Texas, Arizona and Florida are “lying” to migrants about what opportunities might await them in those cities and that it is “luring” others to come to the U.S. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also criticized Republican governors for sending migrants to other cities in an interview with José Díaz-Balart on MSNBC.

“When a governor acts unilaterally and refuses to coordinate with other government officials, that is when problems arise. And that is when we deplore political stuntsmanship when we’re dealing with the lives of vulnerable individuals,” Mayorkas said. 

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Two planes of about 50 migrants arrived in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts on Wednesday night from Florida, by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Massachusetts officials say the planes initially came from Texas. DeSantis’ move is just one of many by Republican governors to send migrants elsewhere in the U.S. in what they consider to be a failure of the Biden Administration's border policies. Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell law school joins LX to discuss this ongoing migrant crisis.
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