Greg Abbott fends off criticism after busing migrants to VP’s home on freezing Christmas Eve

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Governor Greg Abbott on Monday pushed back against sharp criticism from the White House that he brought more migrants to Washington, DC, over the weekend – where they arrived outside the home of Vice President Kamala Harris the day before Christmas in sub-zero temperatures.

“The White House is full of a bunch of hypocrites, led by the hypocrite in chief…Instead of their hypocritical complaints that Texas is providing much-needed relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities, the President Biden and Border Czar Harris need to step in and do their job to secure the border, which they are still failing to do,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a statement.

Abbott has been periodically ferrying migrants from Texas for months to protest “reckless” federal border policies, he said, and to bring “relief” to border communities.

A Texas Division of Emergency Management spokesperson said in September the state spent more than $12 million on travel, which includes charter buses and security.

The White House on Sunday called the latest bus a “cruel, dangerous and shameful stunt.”

PHOTO: Buses full of asylum seekers from Texas are dropped off at the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, December 24, 2022, in Washington, DC (WJLA)

Amy Fischer, an aid worker who was outside Harris’ residence at the Naval Observatory, said 139 migrants, many of them families, arrived late Saturday in three buses and none were wearing clothes for cold weather. The temperature was in the teens.

The people were then taken to an area church, Fischer told ABC News.

Eze, a spokesman for Abbott, said in the statement Monday that people who were being transported by bus “voluntarily chose to go” and “signed a voluntary consent release available in multiple languages ​​upon boarding. that they have agreed on the destination”.

MORE: Texas Governor Greg Abbott says ending Title 42 will bring ‘utter chaos’

Eze then shifted the blame back to the federal government.

“They have been processed and released by the federal government, which is dumping them at historic levels in Texas border towns like El Paso, which recently declared states of emergency due to the Biden crisis,” said said Eze.

The story continues

PICTURED: Texas Governor Greg Abbott attends a campaign event August 31, 2022 in Fairview, Texas. (Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The White House, for its part, said Sunday it believed a policy was still possible.

“As we’ve said repeatedly, we’re ready to work with anyone – Republican or Democrat – on real solutions, like comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures that President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these political games achieve nothing and only put lives at risk,” spokesman Abdullah Hasan said in a statement.

Greg Abbott fends off criticism after ferrying migrants to VP’s home on freezing Christmas Eve originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

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