Photo Credit: Office of the Vice President of the United States
During single digit temperatures in DC this weekend, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent 3 busloads of around 130 migrants to Washington near Vice President Kamala Harris’ home. This was done yet again for the sake of trying to send a message to Washington for them to see what dealing with an influx of migrants at the border felt like. Mind you many showed up without shoes, had on flip flops or sandals, according to Madhvi Bahl, an organizer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network.
Bahl described the event as awful” and referred to Abbott’s actions as “cruelty” being “the point.” Her organization was one of many who showed up to meet the migrants stating “D.C. was prepared and we showed up and welcomed folks, as we’ve been doing for months now.” They were taken to shelters where food and warm clothes awaited them. The White House made a statement accusing Abbott of having “abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities.”
“This was a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt,” Abdullah Hasan, a White House assistant press secretary, said in a statement. “As we have repeatedly said, we are willing to work with anyone — Republican or Democrat alike — on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger,” Hasan said.
But politics goes both ways. Twice this summer the White House declined DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for National Guard assistance for what was to “help prevent a prolonged humanitarian crisis in our nation’s capital resulting from the daily arrival of migrants.” Approximately 7,000 migrants had been transported from Texas to Washingtno from April to August of this year alone. And for a point of reference, DC has 8 wards with approximately 80,000 people per ward, so that is about a 10th of one ward. Just imagine those sent to other big cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and Martha’s Vineyard.
Abbott was announced to be getting investigated by DC District Attorney General Karl Racine this October to see whether migrants had been getting deceived, just as the Treasury Department investigated Florida Governor DeSantis for using federal funds to transport migrants. We’re going to see how all of this turns out in the end.
Source
