Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott is rankling Washington, D.C. with his latest plan to combat the crisis at the U.S. southern border.

The governor announced earlier this month that he would be sending busloads of illegal aliens from his state to Washington, D.C. and dropping them off at the U.S. Capitol.  The announcement came shortly after the Biden administration decided to end Title 42, which could lead to as many as 500,000 illegal aliens crossing the border each month, according to some estimates.

"We are sending them to the United States capital where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border," Abbott said.

Abbott is correct to place the responsibility for the border crisis right on Congress and Joe Biden's doorstep.  The Biden administration has caused a historic crisis at our border with its anti-border policies, and this Congress has aided and abetted them every step of the way.

Unsurprisingly, the move was met with expected screeching and howling from the usual suspects.

Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat who ran for president in 2020 and is challenging Abbott in the governor's race this fall, called it a "stunt," echoing a line from the White House.

"I think it's pretty clear that this is a publicity stunt," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a recent Fox News interview.

While the Biden administration is dismissing Abbott's move as a "stunt" publicly, there is evidence that it is taking it more seriously privately.  The Texas Division of Emergency Management, which is overseeing Abbott's initiative, told Fox News recently that the federal government has stopped dropping off illegal aliens in certain overwhelmed towns throughout South Texas.  For the past 15 months, Abbott has been looking for answers to the Biden-created border crisis that has rocked his state, and now it appears he's at least found a way to get Washington's attention.  Since Biden took office, Texas has largely had to fend off the crisis itself as the federal government has abandoned it.

Over the past year, Texas has been forced to begin construction on its own border wall as the Biden administration spends millions of dollars every day not to erect a physical barrier.  Texas has also sent National Guard troops as part of "Operation Lone Star," while receiving assistance from several other states.  Now Texas is throwing down the gauntlet, sending illegal aliens directly to the care of the federal government, which invited them into the U.S. in the first place.

Like Texas's previous moves, it is unlikely that dropping off busloads of illegal aliens in front of the Capitol will force a change in national immigration policy.  The White House is staffed with too many anti-borders ideologues and beholden to too many anti-borders interest groups to change course now.

Still, Abbott's decision to bus illegal aliens to the nation's capital is the right move that other states should imitate.  Some leaders have said that they plan to ship illegal aliens dropped off in their state to Biden's home state of Delaware.  Florida governor Ron DeSantis reiterated his plans to do just that in the aftermath of Title 42 coming to an end, and Republican Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lou Barletta said last year that he will do the same if elected.  Busing illegal aliens to Delaware and Washington, D.C. is a trend that should continue to catch on.  Since Biden refuses to visit the border to take a firsthand look at the crisis he has created, state leaders are well within their rights to send the crisis straight to his doorstep.

Abbott surely knows that he can't change Biden's mind on immigration, but by sending large numbers of illegal aliens to Washington, D.C., he can force the White House and Congress to directly confront the costs of their inaction.  That alone makes this move worth it for Abbott and Texas.

William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.  

Image: Screen shot from shareable AP/KVIA video posted on YouTube.