El Paso halts practice of busing migrants to New York and Chicago, citing new expulsion policy

Officials in El Paso, Texas, discontinued this week the practice of transporting migrants to New York City and Chicago by bus, citing a new Biden administration policy designed to deter Venezuelan migrants from crossing the southern border illegally, a city spokesperson told CBS News.

Laura Cruz-Acosta, the El Paso spokesperson, said the Democratic-led Texas city had stopped chartering buses of migrants to the northern cities, an effort it started this summer to reduce overcrowding in its shelter system, which was overwhelmed by a sharp increase in Venezuelan migrants released from U.S. border custody.

Migrant arrivals, however, have decreased since the Biden administration announced last week that it would expel Venezuelan migrants who entered the country illegally to Mexico, while opening a legal pathway for a limited number of Venezuelans to come to a U.S. airport if they have a U.S.-based sponsor, Cruz-Acosta said.