Forcibly Bussing Immigrants to Other States: This Is How Humans Were Used as Political Stones in the Election Race in the USA

Whenever the date of the presidential elections or the midterm renewal of the Congress in the United States of America approaches, the political debate over hot files, such as immigration, starts.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott did not hesitate to use immigrants and refugees coming to the state as a political card, treat them as things, put them on buses, and "ship" them to other states without coordinating with their authorities.

This seemed to be part of political propaganda and hatred incitement. He sent some of them to Washington, DC, announcing that others would also be sent on buses to New York City soon. Asylum seekers affected by these measures entered illegally across the border with Mexico.

"In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city," Abbott said in a news release. "I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief."

Abbott will join the re-election race in November and is considered one of the leading candidates for the Republican Party in the presidential election scheduled for 2024.

New York City and Washington, DC, are cities that pursued policies that welcomed illegal immigrants and refused to cooperate with the federal police to extradite them during the administration of former President Donald Trump.

Adams responded to Abbott's comments: "Abbott used innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis. New Yorkers are stepping up to fix it—that's our city's values."

 

Core Issue

In an interview with Al-Estiklal, the expert on politics Mustapha Khattabi said: "It must be noted that the current poisonous debate about immigration among American politicians is mainly dictated by the election race and the hot strife between Republicans and Democrats."

He added: "It is also essential to mention the fact that the United States is among the largest countries that receive immigrants in the world. Today, about 40 million people who were born outside it live, and a large part of them have been naturalized. On average, the United States receives about one million people annually who apply for immigration, asylum, or work on a variety of visas."

Media and official reports indicate that the New York state authorities put buses at the service of immigrants and asylum seekers, often coming from Latin American countries, and provide them with one-way tickets to New York or Washington.

In a recent New York City Council session, the city's Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro described the steps taken by Texas Governor Abbott as "disgusting, cruel and cowardly."

In a radio interview, Castro said that a number of asylum seekers who arrived in New York need emergency health care, such as diabetics who were sent by the authorities in Texas without the necessary medications such as insulin, and it took about four days to take them on a bus from Texas to New York.

These officials spoke of the arrival of some of those who were transferred from Texas without water and food, as the state authorities did not provide them with these necessary life necessities, which they also did not have the money to buy.

Some immigrants do not want to stay in New York and wish to join relatives who live in other cities and states. Some of them are close to Texas itself, such as Chicago and North Carolina, but the politicization of their case and the attempt by Texas officials to exploit it without prior coordination with us put them on these buses that shipped them to New York, with the aim of creating a crisis and exploiting the issue in the upcoming elections.

 

Unnecessary Crisis

New York state officials claimed that the administration of the Governor of Texas has forced bus companies carrying immigrants not to report or give information about their arrival times in order to increase pressure on the system and create an unnecessary crisis and insisted that their anger at the recent events is not because New York is not interested in receiving immigrants, but because their situation is being exploited politically."

In general, New York has an open policy with immigrants, including asylum seekers or even those who live there without identity papers, and may grant them, without accountability, public services, including health, housing through homeless shelters, and education.

However, these services remain relatively limited and are limited to assisting families in providing the ingredients for survival without guaranteeing a decent living for their members and the possibility of their progress, which makes achieving the American Dream difficult if not impossible for the overwhelming majority of them who risked what little they have to reach the United States.

Although the average income in New York City is one of the highest in the United States, basic living costs, such as housing, food supplies, commuting on public transportation, and buying clothes, are much higher than the national average. The majority of high-income jobs require a university education, often in the economy sector, while many asylum seekers work in the public service sector, such as restaurants, with relatively low rates of income.

It is noteworthy that the poverty rate among New York City residents is the highest in the United States. A recent annual report issued by the non-profit organization Robin Hood stated that "1.4 million of the approximately 8.5 million city residents live in poverty, including one in five children."

 

The American Dream is out of reach

Official statistics put the number of homeless people in New York at more than 80,000, a small percentage of them (about 3,000) living on the streets. As for the majority of them, including families and children, they live in shelters under complicated and difficult conditions.

Although a good proportion of the homeless in New York has a job, their wages are not sufficient to guarantee the minimum necessities of a decent life for them, such as housing, given that New York is among the most expensive cities in the United States in terms of the cost of living and renting apartments.

Recent developments and the exploitation of the case by the governors of Texas and Arizona states for political purposes show that the issue will become more heated with the approach of the mid-term congressional elections and the presidential elections scheduled for about two years.