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Philadelphia officials are preparing the city to receive busses of migrants from Texas in the event Gov. Greg Abbott targets Philadelphia as the next destination for migrants being bussed to Democrat-led cities.
“The city is inventorying existing resources should those seeking safe refuge find their way to Philadelphia,” Kevin Lessard, a spokesperson for Democratics Mayor Jim Kenney, told Axios.
There has been no confirmation that busses of migrants from Texas will be directed to Philadelphia. Kenney’s office says it does not anticipate any notice if busses are directed to the City of Brotherly Love, Axios reported. Kenney’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Sunday.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sent busses carrying more than 7,600 migrants to Washington, D.C., since April. The governor began sending busses of migrants to New York City early last month and busses to Chicago at the end of August. Roughly 1,900 migrants have so far been bussed to New York City, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Mayor Jim Kenney speaks during a news conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Nov. 6, 2020.
(Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether busses will be sent to Philadelphia. An Abbott spokesperson did tell Axios to “stay tuned” when asked what other cities will see busses of migrants.
Conservative leaders in border states and across the country have slammed President Biden for his immigration policies amid the crisis at the border, including ending the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, announcing an ultimately-failed plan to offer citizenship to 11 million illegal immigrants at the start of his presidential tenure, and loosening border enforcement policies.
“President Biden has never visited the border to understand the magnitude of the crisis he created. His ‘Border Czar’ Vice President Kamala Harris has similarly taken no meaningful actions to address the gravity of the situation, except one visit to the El Paso sector over a year ago. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently testified that the southern border is ‘safe and secure.’ As thousands of illegal immigrants cross the border each day, that statement is either shockingly uninformed or intentionally deceptive,” Abbott wrote in an op-ed published on Fox News Digital last month.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during a press conference in Austin on May 18, 2020.
(Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool/Getty Images)
Abbott and his office have issued repeated statements that Democratic leaders denouncing the strategy of bussing migrants should speak with Biden about securing the border.
“If [D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser] wants a solution to this crisis, she should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border – something he has failed to do. The true ongoing humanitarian crisis is along our southern border,” the governor’s office said in July following criticisms from the D.C. mayor.
A fourth migrant bus from Texas arrived in Washington, D.C., near the U.S. Capitol, April 16, 2022.
(Caitlin McFall/Fox News Digital)
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has joined Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams in condemning Abbott for the strategy, with Lightfoot doubting Abbott’s Christian faith as busses arrived in Chicago last weekend.
“He professes to be a Christian,” Lightfoot said at a press conference last Sunday. “This is not the Christianity and the teachings of the Bible that I know. And I think religious leaders all across the country are standing up and denouncing exactly this.”
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Abbott’s office told Fox News Digital last week that “attacking the governor’s commitment to his faith is a pathetic political ploy to change the conversation away from Mayor Lightfoot’s unwillingness to uphold her city’s self-declared sanctuary status.”
