Abbott: Biden is ‘using illegal immigrants as political pawns’

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) pushed back on President Biden’s argument that the governor is using asylum-seekers as “political pawns,” instead claiming it is Biden himself who is doing this.

“So the person who’s actually using illegal immigrants as political pawns is Joe Biden,” Abbott said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “Joe Biden has created this open border policy that has allowed illegal immigrants into our country to appeal to and to appease the far leftists in the Democrat Party, the people like [Rep. Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez [D-N.Y.], in hopes of trying to win their support while at the same time destroying the country that he’s in charge of.”

Biden has repeatedly criticized Abbott and other Republican governors’ attempts to take their own actions at the border, arguing they have used migrants for their own political gains.

“Instead of working with us on solutions, Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props,” Biden said in 2022.

Abbott reiterated his argument that Biden is pursuing “political games” and putting the country “at risk” because of his border policies. He likened the president to New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), who has also been a staunch critic of the governor’s policies.

Abbott began sending buses of migrants to New York City and other so-called sanctuary cities for nearly two years, and Adams has repeatedly demanded more federal resources to deal with the influx.

“And Mayor Adams is just aiding and abetting that by having a sanctuary city status, welcoming in anybody from across the world to live there or stay there in New York City, on the bill of New York City,” Abbott said. “And what Mayor Adams needs to do, he needs to stop talking boldly about illegal immigration and the migrants that Texas is sending there, and he needs to step up and do his own job because look at the dangers in New York City under his watch.”

A spokesperson for Adams’s office said Abbott is the one choosing to treat migrants as “political pawns,” by busing them to major cities.

“New York City stepped up and displayed true American values. Since the spring of 2022, more than 187,300 migrants have come to our city seeking shelter, and, already, more than 122,000 of them have been able to take the next steps in their journeys thanks to our hard work and commitment to connecting them to casework,” the spokesperson said to The Hill. “We are exceptionally proud of the compassion and care we have provided, qualities Governor Abbott seems to lack.”

The spokesperson argued Abbott had the opportunity to witness what they called a “national humanitarian crisis,” during his trip to New York City last week, but instead, “chose to lob nonsensical insults at the mayor of New York City while he does nothing to protect his fellow Texans from the high homicide rate he has overseen in the state.”

The Hill reached out to the White House for comment.

Tensions between Abbott and the Biden administration were enflamed earlier this year when the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety installed fences and razor wire in a riverside park in Eagle Pass, Texas, and blocked park access to Border Patrol officials. The Biden administration challenged this in what became a showdown at the Supreme Court.

Abbott and the Biden administration have also been in a months-long legal saga over a bill that would authorize local law enforcement in Texas to arrest those suspected of entering the country illegally. Late last month, a federal appeals court extended the block on the law, which went into effect for a brief time last month following a Supreme Court ruling.

Updated at 4:42 pm.