DC Mayor Calls for National Guard's Help to Address 'Humanitarian Crisis' Involving Illegal Immigrants
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) is calling for federal involvement to assist with handling the influx of illegal migrants.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Bowser said, “We are very focused, and we continued to be very focused on having the federal government take the lead in what we see is a growing humanitarian crisis with people who are seeking asylum coming across the country to get to their final destinations.
“And we’re going to continue to pursue federal involvement,” she added.
Watch the video below:
DC @MayorBowser calls for activating the National Guard to handle the influx of illegal migrants into the city, calling it a "humanitarian crisis."
This is something she refused to do on January 6 but will do when 4,000 illegal migrants enter her city. pic.twitter.com/R3kUM5JUXs
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 28, 2022
Bowser went on to reveal that she asked the secretary of the Army to deploy the National Guard to get involved in addressing the flow of migrants being bused to the city.
“We need the Guard to help with the humanitarian crisis that we expect to escalate. The number of people crossing the border seeking asylum, we expect to only go up,” she said, adding, “We need to make sure that there is a national response, not an ad hoc city by city, state by state response.”
The question refers to the decision of the governors of Arizona and Texas to send illegal immigrants to the nation’s capital.
Bowser has previously raised concerns about the influx of migrants, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) also spoke out about migrants being sent to the city.
“Our system was inundated with those who were seeking shelter because of the callousness of the states that pushed them out. We’re here. We’re receiving them, and everyone is going to have to be on board,” Adams said earlier this week.
He added, “Our schools are going to be impacted, our healthcare system is going to be impacted, our infrastructure is going to be impacted. But we’re going to be willing to do our job – We’re going to do our job, and we’re going to need all New Yorkers to be with us.”
Texas Greg Abbott (R) vowed to send illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C., and he has been making good on that promise.
After the first bus arrived in the capital, he tweeted, “First Texas bus drops off illegal immigrants blocks from US Capitol in Washington, DC. Biden refuses to come see the mess he’s made at the border.”
“So Texas is bringing the border to him,” Abbott added.
First Texas bus drops off illegal immigrants blocks from US Capitol in Washington, DC.
Biden refuses to come see the mess he’s made at the border.
So Texas is bringing the border to him.https://t.co/wHZkwnD305
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 13, 2022
Abbott’s move to bus migrants to other parts of the country — and apparently leave them there without help — is kind of petty and treats humans as unwitting political pawns.
But the comments from Bowser and Adams echo what officials in red states have been saying for years about the strain on the system, and if the decision to bus migrants to other cities puts pressure on lawmakers to finally come up with a humane fix to immigration laws, then it would wind up being a good move.
If nothing happens, then it appears that it will just wind up being another useless stunt.
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