Katie Hobbs to bus illegal immigrants out of Arizona, won't say where they are going

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is continuing her Republican predecessor Doug Ducey’s program to bus illegal migrants out of the state, but in a way that she says will be more "efficient and humane." 

Hobbs told The Arizona Republic on Tuesday that her administration would focus on ensuring that the program and associated costs were "efficient and humane."



"We just wanted to make sure that we were addressing this issue and, as I talked about many times in the campaign, in a way that was the best use of taxpayer resources and something that wasn't a political stunt."
 
Ducey began busing the illegal migrants out of the state in May, and Hobbs has expanded the program to include an option of chartered air travel, according to an updated contract signed on January 14. Over 3,000 people were bused from the Yuma area to Washington DC during Ducey’s time in office, costing the state over $7 million.

Last year, Republican lawmakers had earmarked $15 million for the program.

Earlier this week, a Yuma official warned that the city is on the brink of collapse due to being overwhelmed by illegal migrants thanks to the Biden administration's failed immigration policies.

The border has seen a historic crisis under President Joe Biden's presidency. Illegal border crossings in December reached their highest level of the Biden administration, topping 250,000 in the final month of 2022 continuing the pattern of breaking records every month.

Hobbs told reporters last week regarding the bussing: "We need to look at that practice and make sure it’s effective, [that] it’s something that supports local communities. If we’re spending the money to bus people, why not just get them to their final destination?"

Hobbs told The Arizona Republic that her actions would be different than the methods of Republican governors Greg Abbott, of Texas, and Ron DeSantis, of Florida, who both have transported migrants to Democratic-run cities to showcase the failure of Biden’s border policies. An updated contract removed the requirement that buses with illegal immigrants must be sent to Washington, DC.

Last year, Washington, DC's Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency related to the migrants being bussed to the US capital. Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams declared that there is no more room for illegal immigrants in the city despite its status as a "sanctuary city" for migrants, and called on the federal government to solve the crisis.

Hobbs added, "We're interested in focusing on the humanitarian aspects of this and just putting people on a bus as a political stunt and sending them to Martha's Vineyard or wherever they went is not providing any help or any solution to the actual issue."