Two migrant buses sent by Texas governor Greg Abbott, carrying between 75 and 100 people, arrived outside the home of vice president Kamala Harris in Washington, DC.
The buses arrived on Thursday morning after setting off from Del Rio, Texas, according to Fox News Digital.
The Naval Observatory, the vice president’s designated residence since 1974, is located in northwest Washington, DC.
Some of the migrants were picked up in Eagle Pass, which, like Del Rio, is situated along the border with Mexico.
Fox News Digital reported that the migrants came from Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, and Mexico. The conservative outlet reported that some of the migrants said they believe the border is open.
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The buses arrived in the US capital not long after Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis sent two planes carrying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast, on Wednesday.
Attempting to make a point about border control, right-wing governors have been sending migrants to progressive areas.
Fox News Digital reported that a member of Sanctuary DMV came to the scene, telling the migrants they would be heading to a church in the area.
Sanctuary DMV describes itself as an “all-volunteer solidarity group resisting policies [and] practices targeting immigrants in DC, Maryland [and] Virginia”.
Group member Marla Bustillos told Fox News Digital that they had been “at Union Station since six in the morning waiting” and “just heard 20 minutes ago that the drop-off was this one”.
“We’ve already set up a church and ... a safe location for them to tell us where they need to go next, where they have relatives,” she added.
Ms Bustillos said she was “surprised” to see the media present on the scene “before we could get here”.
“So the press knew the location before we did, some of the volunteers … it’s very frustrating,” she said. “We’re gonna make it happen, but it takes a lot of resources, a lot of effort.”
Mr Abbott has sent a large number of buses carrying migrants to cities run by Democrats, such as New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC. To DC alone, he has “sent at least 9,400 migrants” since April “in an effort to push responsibility for border crossers to Democrats,” per The Guardian.
Last week, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a public emergency, making funding available to respond to the influx of migrants bussed in from Texas and Arizona. The funding will also be used to create the Office of Migrant Services (OMS), which will be providing temporary housing, medical care, transportation, as well as other services.
DC Council member Brianne Nadeau blamed the situation on the Republican leaders of Texas and Arizona.
“So, it’s been said, but it’s worth reiterating, that the governors of Texas and Arizona have created this crisis. And, the federal government has not stepped up to assist the District of Columbia,” she told the press last week. “So we, along with our regional partners, we’ll do what we’ve always done. We’ll rise to the occasion.”
Governor Abbott said in a statement that “the Biden-Harris Administration continues ignoring and denying the historic crisis at our southern border, which has endangered and overwhelmed Texas communities for almost two years”.
“Our supposed Border Czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, has yet to even visit the border to see firsthand the impact of the open border policies she has helped implement, even going so far as to claim the border is ‘secure.’ Texas will continue sending migrants to sanctuary cities like Washington, DC until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their jobs to secure the border,” he added.
Appearing on Meet the Press on NBC on Sunday, Ms Harris said, “the border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed”.
“We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration,” she added.
