Washington D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser raised concerns over Texas sending busloads of migrants to the nation’s capital during a recent appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been busing migrants to D.C. since April, when he announced that the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) would oversee the transport of migrants to the nation’s capital. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey instituted a similar program a few weeks later.
“We are sending them to the United States Capitol 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 when announcing the program.
A press release explaining the program clarified that only migrants who arrive at the border and are processed and released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be offered a voluntary bus ride to D.C.
During the interview, host Margaret Brennan mentioned a Washington Post report that suggested D.C.’s homeless shelters are filling up with processed migrants being bused in from Texas and Arizona. Since April, the two states have sent at least 4,000 migrants to the nation’s capital.
Bowser acknowledged that was a “significant issue” while calling for a coordinated federal response to manage the migrants being bused in. She also expressed concern that some migrants are allegedly being “tricked” onto the buses.
“Well, this is a very significant issue. We have for sure called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses. We think they’re largely asylum seekers who are going to final destinations that are not Washington, D.C.,” Bowser said.
Bowser was further asked whether taxpayers on the local or national level are paying for the migrants to be housed in homeless shelters.
“Local taxpayers are not picking up the tab. They should not pick up the tab,” Bowser said. “We really need a coordinated federal response. We know that it’s done for refugees who come to the states from all points of the world, and the same has to be done in the situation.”
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released its June monthly report, which revealed over 200,000 encounters with unlawful migrants along the southern border. That figure included over 15,000 unaccompanied children.
“Border communities are overrun and overwhelmed, and Gov. Abbott launched the border bus mission back in April to help provide support to these communities pleading for help where the Biden Administration is dumping migrants,” Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze said. “With our nation’s capital now experiencing a fraction of the disaster created by President Biden’s reckless open border policies that our state faces every single day, maybe he’ll finally do his job and secure the border.”