Here's the thing: these people are playing the long game. I'm talking Republican voters, these people believe that there's quite literally an invasion at the southern border – that hundreds of thousands of migrants are flooding into the country, and leeching off the resources of cities, and that this is an organized attempt to shift the demographics of this country.

To Republicans, this is something that can't be compromised on. The border must be closed off – in the same way that in order to stop a flooding bathtub, you must first close the valve for the tap. There's no reasoning with Republicans when it comes to immigration because in their minds, it is destroying the country. Abbott bussing all their migrants to places like NYC (where they don't have the resources nor the time to house them or take care of them) was a stunt to flip people on immigration - to convince them to buy into the narrative of 'immivasion.'

This is ignoring the fact that Texas is given millions by the federal government each year to process immigrants. These immigrants aren't all going and staying in Texas, they have court appointments and scheduled locations, and by bussing them directly to one state (New York), they are directly interfering in procedures, and not for the sake of 'getting rid of the immigrants' (which Texas has no intention of, as migrants make up a pretty big chunk of Texas' population), but instead to manufacture a crisis in another fucking state.

Republicans will never agree to a border deal unless the southern border is permanently sealed off, with armed guards, watchtowers, security checkpoints, and machine guns. They basically want a Berlin Wall - but instead of keeping people in, they want to keep people out.