When the history of the Biden administration is written, the humble bus will likely play a significant part in the narrative. It was buses full of migrants sent from Texas and Arizona which turned some of America’s blue state governors and mayors into border hawks. And now it may be the bus which escalates the current border crisis, already at levels never seen before, to even greater levels of chaos.

The NY Times reports that both Costa Rica and Panama have started busing migrants from one border to the other. This isn’t an underground operation run by cartels. These efforts are organized by the government as a way to move people along on their way to the US border. For a fee, a bus will now take you from one border to the other.

More than 400,000 people have crossed into Costa Rica from Panama this year, according to Panamanian officials, doubling the number of crossings from last year and leading to a massive tent encampment along Costa Rica’s borders, complaints from business owners and a rise in abusive smuggling operations.

In October, the Costa Rican government declared a national emergency and formed a plan with Panama to shuttle migrants from its southern border to its northern one. Costa Rican officials say the busing program has removed the encampment, as well as alleviated the strain on border communities and provided people a safer alternative to paying human smugglers.

Similar busing programs have also emerged in parts of Honduras and Mexico.

But the strategy has raised alarms in the United States, which has called on its Latin American allies to deter people from making the treacherous journey north by encouraging them to apply for refugee status closer to their home countries.

Instead, the shuttles seem to be forming a fast lane for them to race north.

Unnamed officials in the Biden administration say they have spoken with counterparts in Panama and Costa Rica. President Rodrigo Chaves of Costa Rica just visited the White House in August where the US promised $12 million to stabilize the flow of migrants.

The two leaders reaffirmed our commitment to advance the goals outlined in the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. In support of these efforts and to stabilize flows and offer opportunities to migrants and refugees, the Department of State is contributing more than $12 million through international organization partners in Costa Rica. President Biden also recognized Costa Rica’s continued cooperation in regional efforts to promote safe, orderly, and regular migration, including through the Safe Mobility Office, which aims to provide an alternative to migrants relying on smugglers by facilitating access to lawful pathways to the United States and other countries, reducing irregular migration.

So they took our money to reduce irregular migration but now they’re busing people across the country for a fee. A Costa Rican police coordinator told the NY Times, “This migration flow couldn’t be stopped, it can’t be prohibited, but it can be administered.” I wonder why no one told us that before they collected the $12 million.

The buses in Costa Rica transport an average of 1,600 people per day or more than 11,000 per week. There are some weeks when the total is closer to 14,000. Remember all of those migrant caravans we heard about? Now the migrants don’t have to walk.

They president of Costa Rica’s chamber of tourism was pretty blunt about what the buses were accomplishing: “At least this bus system gets the problem elsewhere rather than keeping it here.” And that’s what this is all about. No one wants to be responsible for feeding and housing all these people. No one that is except the US sanctuary cities who were happy to extend the offer as a virtue signal until the buses started rolling into town.

The Biden administration is not wrong about this being a potential disaster. Making it easier and quicker to shuttle migrants north means even more migrants will consider making the trip. And that could mean that the record 2.5 million border encounters in FY23 may look paltry compared to the total we see in FY24. Here’s the top comment on this story.

“Rather, one comes to secure their future.”

Yep, these are illegal economic migrants. All of them.

I’m sorry but the Democrats are going to lose again in 2024 for the same reason they lost in 2016. And we deserve it.

Hopefully some of those blue state mayors and governors are paying attention because this problem will be coming to their doorstep soon enough.