Three buses carrying unlawful migrants arrived in Washington near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris on Christmas Eve.
The buses transported about 130 unlawful migrants from Texas to Washington, D.C., according to The New York Times. These buses were initially meant to travel to New York City but were rerouted to the nation’s capital due to road closures and frigid temperatures caused by a winter storm sweeping across the United States.
This storm brought arctic conditions and hard freezes across the country, dropping temperatures far below freezing, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Temperatures in Washington hovered near 15 degrees Fahrenheit, setting a record for the coldest Christmas Eve on record in the city.
The buses stopped outside the Naval Observatory; on whose grounds the vice president resides.
Volunteers with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network provided the travelers with food and clothes. Some of the passengers arrived wearing only shorts and T-shirts, according to National Review. They were later transported to a local church.
The White House released a statement criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, labeling the drop-off as a “cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt,” according to WFAA.
“Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below-freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities,” White House assistant press secretary Abdullah Hasan alleged in the statement.
The buses appear to have originated from Texas as part of Operation Lone Star, although the governor’s office has not confirmed this.
Operation Lone Star is a multiagency effort led by Gov. Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the Texas National Guard to enhance border security and combat the opioid crisis in the United States.
According to a December 22 press release from Gov. Abbott’s office, this initiative has led to more than 336,000 apprehensions of unlawful migrants, over 23,000 criminal arrests, and the seizure of more than 354 million lethal doses of fentanyl.
The program includes a busing mission intended to provide relief to border communities and transport unlawful migrants to sanctuary cities.
“Texas has also bused over 8,700 migrants to our nation’s capital since April, over 4,500 migrants to New York City since August 5, more than 1,500 migrants to Chicago since August 31, and more than 520 migrants to Philadelphia since November 15,” the press release states.
Abbott wrote a letter to President Joe Biden on December 20, criticizing the president’s handling of border policy as well as his administration’s support for the decommissioning of Title 42.
“These [border] communities and the state are ill-equipped to do the job assigned to the federal government — house the thousands of migrants flooding into the country every day,” Abbott stated in the letter.
