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New York City, July 31, 2023. Newly arrived migrants wait outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown. It has been turned into a migrant reception center, to try to secure temporary housing. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR / AFP) (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images) KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
New York City, July 31, 2023. Newly arrived migrants wait outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown. It has been turned into a migrant reception center, to try to secure temporary housing. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR / AFP) (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty ImagesLast year, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott began transporting thousands of migrants and asylum seekers out of Texas, bussing them to cities across the U.S.
Cities considered to be liberal strongholds.
As part of what Abbot calls Operation Lone Star, the buses, filled with men, women and children, began arriving in D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
The western cities of Denver and Los Angeles have also joined the list.
Abbot says that the number of people flooding across the borders are due to poor immigration policies that unfairly impact Texas border towns.
The idea also caught on with on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In one high profile example, he flew migrants to Martha's Vineyard, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts.
The move has provoked outrage from immigration rights groups.
Big cities, with budgets already stretched too thin, are struggling to provide essentials, like housing and health care, to incoming migrants and asylum seekers.
NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with three reporters from across the country.
They discuss the effect on their cities and the increasing urgency to provide housing as winter approaches.
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