By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. this week said about 440 asylum-seekers who illegally crossed the border have been bused to New York City from Del Rio, but he emphasized he believes every one of them knew where they were going.
Owens made his comments during Tuesday’s regular term meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court during a standing agenda item on immigrants. Owens said he was making his comments because of recent media reports coming from New York saying immigrants bused there from the Texas-Mexico border didn’t realize that’s where they were going.
“A couple of weeks ago, I guess the mayor of New York and our governor were going at each other a little bit. The mayor of New York (Eric Adams) had made a comment, I guess the month before, that they were a sanctuary city, and they would take them (immigrants), and Gov. Abbott took it literally and started sending them,” Owens said.
“As of today (Tuesday, Aug. 16), 444 is how many people have been sent from this area – and I don’t know about the whole state of Texas – but from this area, we’ve had 444 sent to New York. We’ve had a total of 4,038 (immigrants) from this area, and that’s been since April 11, sent to Washington,” the county judge added.
Owens said when Abbott announced his plan to bus immigrants to Washington, D.C., state officials, including Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd, met with city and county leaders, and with Tiffany Burrow, the operations director of the migrant processing center.
“When the buses started going to New York, we did not have that conversation with the state, so the way I found out about it, I read it on the internet,” Owens said.
He said one of the concerns that had been voiced is that the immigrants being bused to New York City from the Texas border aren’t aware of their destination. Owens admitted he does not know the statistics on the number of people who were asked or not asked if they wanted to go to New York, but added he believes that all of the immigrants boarding the buses in Del Rio do so after they have been informed about where those buses will go.
“I will tell you that my conversations with Tiffany before all this, she rode a bus going to Washington, D.C., when they first were shipping them there, because she wanted to make sure what it was going to be like, if they were all going to be fed and where they were going to be dropped off,” Owens said.
“I really believe that this information we’re hearing, that these individuals don’t know where they’re going, I believe that’s false. I don’t believe anybody here in Del Rio would allow these individuals to get on a bus without having it explained to them where they’re going,” Owens said, emphasizing he was not “taking sides” with either Abbott or Adams.
“I will tell you that I believe in Val Verde County, in the city of Del Rio, these individuals, I believe, that are getting on the bus, absolutely know where they are going, and they absolutely know that at any time, at any point, where the bus stops, that they can get off,” Owens said.
He said he believes the entire situation “is a little bit political” and reiterated that he is not taking sides with either the Texas governor or the New York mayor.
“There’s enough truths and half-truths on both sides for everybody, but I do believe the individuals that getting on the bus know that they’re either going to New York or Washington, and they know that when they stop, they can get off the bus, and there’s nothing that the individuals driving the bus or from the state of Texas can do about it,” Owens said.
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