How Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made the border a top priority for Democrats

The big picture: From April 2022 through mid-June 2024, Abbott sent nearly 120,000 migrants to six cities, costing Texas taxpayers more than $230 million, the New York Times reported.

• Cities like Chicago and Denver have especially felt the pinch. Abbott's busing effort pushed Denver officials to weigh difficult decisions about how to use limited resources and call for federal assistance.

What they're saying: "This helped contribute to an overall increase in pressure on the Biden administration on the border," James Henson, executive director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, tells Axios. "And probably helped inform the shift in overall Democratic policy that we saw in the White House."

• "He definitely has made it clear that the cost of the crisis has been borne primarily by the cities," Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, tells Axios.

Context: When Abbott began busing migrants in April 2022, there were nearly 236,000 migrant encounters at the border, per U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Encounters reached a high of nearly 302,000 in December.

• That fell to about 104,000 in July after President Joe Biden halted asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border due to high illegal border crossings.

Texas began busing migrants "to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities," Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris tells Axios.

• "Texas alone shouldn't be bearing the full brunt of the Biden-Harris border crisis, and now that the migrant crisis is at their doorstep, sanctuary city leaders have completely changed their tune," Mahaleris says.

The intrigue: Denver began sending immigrants to Utah, controlled by Republicans, after Texas officials bused them to Denver.

• A spokesperson for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston told Axios then that most migrants arriving there had no intention of going to Denver, so the city bought tickets "for newcomers to get to their desired location."
• The Denver mayor's office and Denver Human Services declined to comment for this story.

Reality check: Cities like Chicago and Denver were likely to see some increase in migrants last year regardless of Abbott's actions, as the number of border crossings spiked in 2023 and such cities are often destinations for immigrants.

• "These cities were probably bound to feel the pressure from these increased migration numbers," Henson says.
• The drop in the number of migrants at the border this year means Abbott has sent fewer buses, NBC reported.

Chicago has avoided an increase in migrants during the ongoing Democratic National Convention.

The other side: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's spokesperson Cassio Mendoza tells Axios that Abbott's actions are a "political stunt."

• "Mayor Johnson has responded by spearheading a national model of compassionate resettlement at the municipal level that has helped to resettle or reunite more than 20,000 people so far," Mendoza says.

Between the lines: By busing migrants, Abbott gained political credibility with Republicans both in Texas and nationally, making him a key figure on an issue that consistently ranks as a top priority for the party, Henson says.

• It also unified Texas Republicans at a time when they were fighting back home over school vouchers and the fate of state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The bottom line: "This migrant busing episode allowed him to be a more muscular governor," Rottinghaus says.