Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee let the public know on Monday that some migrants who are requesting asylum and being bused from Texas to different cities in America are instead getting off at earlier stops in Chattanooga and other areas.
Some migrants, according to Blackburn, are “threatening” bus drivers and demanding that they be allowed off the bus so they may head to sanctuary cities across the United States.
“What we’ve heard is that they’re threatening the drivers from time to time, and they want to get where their friends are,” Blackburn said. “They look at this as a safe passage across the nation, in their mind, if you will. And of course, sanctuary city policies like those implemented by many major cities across the nation, these huge blue metropolises, not in Chattanooga but others have set up – cartels have been free to establish themselves.”
“She continued, saying that gangs have their own hubs where they operate their sex-trafficking businesses.”
For an extended period of time, officials in Texas and Arizona have been transporting foreign asylum-seekers from the southern border to more populated northern cities like Washington, D.C., and New York to bring awareness to the pressing issue of migrants arriving weekly. Gov. Greg Abbott has asked that the mayors of those affected cities visit the border themselves to see the situation firsthand, but they refused and continue asking for federal government support instead.
Some of the migrants who have been boarding buses in Texas are not headed up north as many people think. WTVC-TV, a local news station in Tennessee, reported on Friday that Chattanooga had become a stopping point for charter buses carrying migrants from Texas to places along the East Coast. Some of these migrants apparently got off at a gas station in Rising Fawn, Georgia, and planned to walk about 30 miles until they reach Chattanooga. A McDonald’s employee stated that some migrant children got off one of the buses and started panhandling, asking random people for money so they could travel to Florida.
Officials have advised the migrants to stay on their buses until they reach their intended destination.
According to Blackburn, the majority of migrants exiting the bus were young men. He secondly went on to say that President Joe Biden’s policies play a part in promoting illegal immigration and giving human traffickers an opportunity to take advantage of people journeying to America.