During a White House news briefing Monday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it is “horrific” that a 3-year-old migrant child died while traveling to Chicago on a bus chartered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“A loss of any child is devastating and heartbreaking, so certainly our condolences go out to the child’s family,” Jean-Pierre said in response to a question from PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López. “That is horrific news and horrific to hear that.”
Abbott and other Republican governors have, in recent years, sent migrants who have been crossing the southern border, in large numbers to cities who have designated themselves as sanctuaries and generally decline to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Abbott recently said that over 4,600 migrants have been bused to Chicago in the past year. An estimated 30,000 migrants have been bused out of Texas since the program began in April 2022, according to Abbott’s office.
Jean-Pierre said Abbott has a opportunity to work with the White House to address issues with the nation’s immigration system.
“But what he continues to do is to move forward in a dangerous [way] in taking unlawful actions,” she said. “It is undermining what we’re trying to do, what the president is trying to do, trying to deal with a with a broken system in a humane way.”
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