Texas may get the last laugh in a showdown with Chicago officials over transporting migrants from besieged border cities to the Windy City after asylum seekers flew from El Paso to Chicago last week.
Despite strict regulations penalizing charter buses loaded with migrants headed to Illinois, buses and planes carrying migrants are currently headed to Chicago, El Paso officials confirmed to DailyMail.com.
According to the City of El Paso's migrant dashboard, El Paso has sent 139 buses to Chicago in recent months with the help of state officials.
Last week, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, or TDEM, which handles migrant transports, chartered its first flight carrying migrants to Chicago to avoid increasing restrictions on when and where migrants can be dropped off.
'TDEM has actually turned it around; they said if we have any problems with buses, we're going to send flights,” John Martin, who runs the Opportunity Center for the Homeless in El Paso, told DailyMail.com in an interview Tuesday.
Last Tuesday marked the first time that the governor of Texas used planes to transport the migrants. The cost of the flight to Texas taxpayers was not disclosed
Migrants line up in El Paso on December 19 to board a plane to Chicago
In recent weeks, the city of Chicago and suburbs like Aurora and Tinley Park have begun fining charter bus companies that fail to warn them in advance about where and when asylum seekers would arrive.
“They (migrants) need to be respected, they need to be cared for, but ultimately this is the responsibility of the bus company,” said Tinley Park Village Manager Pat Carr. Chicago NBC Station.
“They're the ones smuggling these people here.”
The new rules resulted in the seizure of one bus and dozens of fines.
In El Paso, migrants at the Opportunity Center, one of three nonprofit shelters bursting with recent border crossings, are still registering to go to the Windy City.
El Paso city officials worked with state officials to transport more than 17,000 migrants from the West Texas city
Thousands of asylum seekers have been bused to major cities from border states including Texas, as unprecedented numbers continue to enter the United States
A legal waiver that migrants must sign before boarding a Texas-funded bus
Texas Governor Greg Abbot attends the event for Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump during his visit to the southern border in Edinburg, Texas, US on November 19
“The (migrants) in care have a desire to get to Chicago,” Martin said.
He added that it is one of the top destinations where migrants want to go.
New York City and Denver are the other two top choices.
“We're trying to be as honest as we can – basically saying, 'You know, that might not be the best option, first of all, because of the policies that are going on, and secondly, and more importantly, the temperatures.
We even have a poster in our welcome center that shows some of the daily temperatures for each of the locations so they can visually see that they are going to very cold locations.”
Migrants who meet the requirements to file an asylum claim enter the Opportunity Center after being screened and released by Border Patrol.
After warning migrants about what they might encounter depending on where they go, Martin says migrants at his shelter are referred to a TDEM center in El Paso.
Those who don't have the money to travel on to their final destination city are the individuals who often choose to board one of the Texas buses that go to so-called sanctuary cities.
Migrants sign a waiver stating that they voluntarily agree to proceed and be taken to New York City, Chicago, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Denver, or Los Angeles.
From there the state takes over.
“We know that a few of us who were planning to go to Chicago went to the bus pick-up location,” Martin explained.
“According to what they told us, the buses took them to another shelter, which we suspect is a hangar, and then they were put on a plane.”
Opportunity Center volunteers say the migrants are determined to reach their final destination because they often have family, friends or an immigration sponsor waiting for them.
The state of Texas has spent a whopping $86.1 million on transporting migrants north, at a cost of $1,650 per migrant.
That excludes the price of flights, a figure that has not been made public.
“Texas communities like Eagle Pass and El Paso should not have to endure the unprecedented wave of illegal immigration caused by President Biden's reckless open border policies,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott previously said.
The row between Texas and Chicago comes amid another record-breaking surge at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Border officials reported the highest number of migrant crossings ever, with a seven-day average of more than 9,600 in December.
Eagle Pass, Texas is the second-busiest border crossing location for migrants nationwide, with at least 18,853 migrants last week, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.