Texas governor sends migrants to Denver

First, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott asked fellow governors to send law enforcement officers and soldiers to "help secure" the border. Then, he chose Denver as the fifth destination city to bus migrants to from the Texas border, with the first group of migrants arriving in the Colorado capital last week.

Abbott continues to make the border a major political issue on his agenda despite the fact that migrant crossings have dropped significantly since Title 42 expired on May 11.

In a two-page plea letter sent to governors across the country last week, Abbott asked his peers to join his fight against US President Joe Biden's new asylum measures by sending funding and all available law enforcement to the southern border.

Abbott said his request to other governors was prompted by the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed authorities to expel migrants without letting them request asylum for health reasons.

He accused Biden of "systematically dismantling every effective border security policy".

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who made news when he flew people to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts last year, quickly responded that he was prepared to commit 1,100 National Guard soldiers and law enforcement personnel to help Texas.

Busing migrants to Democrat-led cities has gained Abbott a lot of attention. So far, he has bused 19,000 migrants to New York, Washington DC, Chicago and Philadelphia.

"Until the president and his administration step up and fulfill their constitutional duty to secure the border, Texas will continue busing migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities like Denver to provide much-needed relief to our small border towns," Abbott said in a statement.

Denver is already struggling to accommodate migrants. The city's website showed that it has received more than 10,000 migrants since last December, and is currently sheltering more than 1,200 migrants in five shelters. Denver said it has spent about $17 million on aid, while receiving only $900,000 from Washington.

The Biden administration has issued various immigration orders in anticipation of Title 42's lifting, including providing new options to seek asylum without going to the southern border and imposing stiffer penalties on asylum-seekers who try to cross the border illegally.

According to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, opinion is gloomy about Biden's efforts on gun policy and immigration, of which even among Democrats, the poll finds only about half approve of his handling.

The day before Abbott sent out his plea letter, Blas Nunez-Neto, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a news conference that border migrant encounters had dropped by half since Title 42 ended.

In the days before Title 42 ended late on the night of May 17, immigration agents had about 10,000 encounters a day with migrants at the southern border. That number has dropped to about 5,000 a day, Nunez-Neto said.

Agencies contributed to this story.