Buses of migrants arrive in D.C.

More than 100 people spent two days in transit from South Texas. They arrived at the vice president’s residence.

• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• 26 Dec 2022
• By Meryl Kornfield, Kyle Rempfer, and Lizzie Johnson

WASHINGTON — Three buses full of migrants arrived at Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington from Texas on Christmas Eve amid bitingly cold temperatures, a mutual aid group said, the latest in an influx of newcomers sent to the Northeast by Southern states.

About 110 to 130 men, women, and children got off the buses outside the Naval Observatory in 18-degree weather Saturday night after a two-day journey from South Texas, according to the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network. On the coldest Christmas Eve day on record in the District of Columbia, some migrants were bundled up in blankets as they were greeted by volunteers who had received word that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had sent the caravan.

Volunteers scrambled to meet the asylum seekers after the buses, which were scheduled to arrive in New York on Christmas Day, were rerouted due to the winter weather. In a hastily arranged welcome, a church on Capitol Hill agreed to temporarily shelter the group while one of the mutual aid groups, SAMU First Response, arranged 150 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners by the restaurant chain Sardis.

“D.C. continues to be welcoming,” said the network’s core organizer, Amy Fischer. “Whether it’s Christmas Eve, whether it’s freezing cold outside or warm outside, we are always ready to welcome people with open arms and make sure they have a warm reception in this community.”

Abbott’s office did not respond to requests for comment or issue any statement on whether his administration had sent the buses. But White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan blamed the transport on the Republican governor, saying the buses were sent without coordination with local or federal authorities and calling it “a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt.”

“As we have repeatedly said, we are willing to work with anyone — Republican or Democrat alike — on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration restructuring 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 via email.

Abbott began offering asylum seekers free passage to immigrant-friendly Democratic cities on the East Coast in April, an effort to pressure the administration of President Joe Biden into cracking down at the border. Other GOP governors, including Arizona’s Doug Ducey and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, have also sent buses to New York and the nation’s capital.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Biden, Abbott described conditions at the border, saying Texas cities were unable to house the continued influx of migrants coming in from Mexico. He noted the coming Arctic weather and said the new arrivals were at risk of “freezing to death on city streets.” Temperatures in Texas dipped into the teens and 20s in some cities this weekend.

“These 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 said.

Abbott last week deployed the Texas National Guard to try to block migrants from crossing the border at places other than official entry points, which have been essentially closed to many families and individuals because of a Donald Trump-era policy that allows the United States to quickly send people back across the border without an opportunity to apply for asylum.

That policy, known as Title 42, has been successfully challenged in court and was set to expire Wednesday, but Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ordered it temporarily kept in place while the Supreme Court considers a last-ditch appeal by Abbott and other Republican governors to prevent it from ending.

Most of the migrants on the buses that arrived Saturday came from Central America or the Caribbean, Fischer said. About half of the group was made up of families. They came from Mexico through unauthorized and treacherous points along the border, while official border crossings have remained closed under the Title 42 public health policy.

“This was the final stage of what was a harrowing journey for them,” she said. “Particularly the trip upward to the border is quite dangerous and violent. Then, of course, the chaos at the border, and in border facilities there are reports of it being cold and cruel. So many of them were really happy to arrive to smiling faces.”

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