The journey will take 26 hours.
1,400 miles.
That's on top of the dangerous journey many migrants have already made to get to the United States.
Texas - which is Republican-led - says it's spent more than $100 million since 2022 on buses like this - that move migrants to cities like Chicago, New York and Denver, which are Democratic-led.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott characterizes the move as "bringing the border" to those cities...
While a White House adviser said he's using human beings as political pawns.
For the cities further north... the arrivals have exacerbated homelessness and stretched social services.
Reuters recently spoke with more than a dozen migrants as they waited days for buses to leave Texas.
Jose Manuel is one of them.
Reuters is withholding his full name for security reasons.
The asylum seeker from Venezuela says his journey was difficult and long.
Then he had to pass an initial asylum screening in detention.
"There's a big difference compared to being held inside of there, I felt like a criminal because we were all shut in and detained."
It wasn't his first choice - but Jose Manuel opted to board a bus to Chicago.
His journey - paid for by the state of Texas.
"I feel an obligation to serve people who just need a hand, just need a hand up, not a hand out..."
Andrea Rudnik co-founded the volunteer group Team Brownsville.
"We never know from week to week how many buses leave with. We are told only how many sandwiches to make - honestly, that's our our indicator of how many buses are going to leave."
Some of the migrants Reuters spoke with welcomed the free buses.
But had little understanding of the geography of the United States...
or the winter conditions they could face at their destinations.
The best this volunteer can offer Jose Manuel for his trip is a long-sleeved shirt... as they've run out of coats.
Others like Fernando Fernandez and his partner Mariela Gil end up making a difficult decision to head to different cities.
Fernandez... to Chicago.
And Gil - to the offer of a commercial bus ticket and a temporary housekeeping gig in Florida.
FERNANDEZ: "I hope to find some place to stay, like in a hostel or whatever, and be able to find work and have a better future or something, give my family the best, my mom, my daughters, buy a home back in Colombia more than anything else where it's quiet too, but far from the city where I was."
What Fernandez arrives to falls short of a hostel.
Like hundreds of others before him... he initially spends weeks sleeping at a police station... and would ultimately end up taking a commercial bus to Florida to reunite with his partner.
Chicago is now housing more than 15,000 migrants in shelters.
But spending on migrants has sparked backlash from some who say the money should be used to help low-income Chicagoans.
Here's the city's mayor Brandon Johnson speaking last year:
"Our ultimate goal is to get people off of floors. Those who are sleeping outside to get them indoors. And we're doing all that while making sure we're investing in people who have already been here."
Unlike Chicago, New York is legally obliged to house people experiencing homelessness.
It has nearly 70,000 people in hotels, government buildings and tent cities.
The mayors of Chicago, New York and Denver have repeatedly pushed for more federal money to help... while trying to discourage uncoordinated bus drop offs.
They've tried to take steps such as penalizing bus companies.. and pushing for faster access to work permits for newcomers.
That's what Jose Manuel is waiting for.
As he arrives in Chicago, he's overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it all.
"First impression I got is that Chicago is very big. Chicago is very big. It's a big state, and very pretty. So yeah the first impression is that Chicago is very pretty, but wow it's very cold."
In all, Texas has bused some 100,000 migrants to Democratic cities since April 2022.
