Exclusive | I only bused migrants to New York because Eric Adams opened his big mouth and lied, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says

AUSTIN — Gov.Greg Abbott wasn’t going to bus migrants to New York City.

And then Eric Adams opened his big mouth.That’s how the three-term Republican describes his 2022 decision to send 119,000 migrants from the Texas border to sanctuary cities across the country — including more than 45,000 to New York alone.

In an exclusive interview with The Post, Abbott explained that at first he was only sending migrant buses to Washington, DC, to make a point about the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to crack down on the massive surge of illegal crossings — and relieve some pressure on the border towns that were being overwhelmed.Then, “out of nowhere,” Abbott said, “Mayor Adams started criticizing me for busing them to New York, which I was not doing.

But he kept criticizing me.”“I thought, ‘You know what? New York is a sanctuary city, if I’m going to get the criticism, I’m going to get the credit.’ So we started busing them to New York.”The first buses sent by Abbott arrived at Port Authority Bus Terminal a few weeks later in early August.Abbott then started sending buses not just to New York, but to major sanctuary cities across the US, from Los Angeles to Chicago and Denver.The result was a program that may have changed the course of politics, helping to turn the influx of millions of migrants from a border state problem into a national issue that has impacted large portions of the US — and making immigration and border policy one of the biggest issues in the 2024 election.Migrants from the border were already arriving to New York City by the summer of 2022 — though Abbott said Texas wasn’t involved in sending them.In July, Adams claimed migrants coming to NYC were “arriving on buses sent by the Texas and Arizona governments,” which both Abbott and Arizona Gov.

Doug Ducey vehemently denied at the time.A City Hall source said NYC officials believed that many migrants were coming to New York after being bused to Washington ...