Republican Governor Greg Abbott has just scored a big win over Democrats in Washington D.C. after the capital’s Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency over the buses of migrants arriving from Texas.
The Democrat mayors of so-called “sanctuary cities” have been complaining that they are overwhelmed by the small number of migrants sent from Texas and Arizona.
Meanwhile, Democrat President Joe Biden’s pro-immigration policies have triggered an illegal migrant crisis in border states.
On Thursday, Mayor Bowser crumbled and declared a public emergency over the buses.
“We’re putting in place a framework that would allow us to have a coordinated response with our partners,” she said.
“This will include a program to meet all buses, and given that most people will move on, our primary focus is to make sure we have a humane, efficient, welcome process that will allow people to move on to their final destination.
“Regardless of the federal response — which I think has been lacking in some respects — that the District of Columbia would continue to work with partners to advance what we need and ensure our systems in D.C. are not broken by a crisis that is certainly not of our making,” Bowser said.
Meanwhile, Greg Abbott has responded by telling Democrat “sanctuary city” mayors to go pound sand.
“In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Gov. Abbott said in an op-ed for the New York Post.
“Adams talked the talk about being a sanctuary city — welcoming illegal immigrants into the Big Apple with warm hospitality.
“Talk is cheap,” the governor said.
“When pressed into fulfilling such ill-considered policies, he wants to condemn anyone who is pressing him to walk the walk.
“The Biden administration has paper-processed hundreds of thousands of migrants who are dropped off in those small Texas towns, leaving them helpless to deal with the massive influx.
“As the mayor of Carrizo Springs recently recounted, federal authorities one day told city officials that an unspecified number of processed migrants would be released into the town of roughly 5,000 Texans — beginning the next day.
“This came despite obvious objections that the city lacked the resources to take in hundreds of migrants daily.
“Texas has been left to fend for itself. It’s the only state in history to build its own border wall.
“I have deployed the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to repel and arrest illegal immigrants and to seize weapons and deadly drugs like fentanyl that pour across our border.
“I have yet to receive a thank-you note from Adams for Texas law enforcement seizing enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in the state of New York.
“Mayor Adams likes to sloganeer that ‘This is America’ and we need to start acting like it.
“Damn right! We are a nation of laws.
“It’s time to start enforcing them,” he wrote.
“Doing that would begin to restore the ‘humanity’ he is clamoring for.”
From Axios:
Bowser’s declaration comes with a $10 million investment in a new D.C. Office of Migrant Services.
The local department will help nonprofits and other groups that are straining to welcome and help the migrants arriving at Union Station, where city officials hope to have a 24/7 presence soon.
What they’re saying: Bowser called the Republican governor’s actions a “stunt,” and also criticized the Biden administration for not offering more support.
The federal government has rejected the mayor’s requests for the National Guard to be deployed to assist.
She added she is “very disappointed in not having a federal site” to house and process the migrants.
By the numbers: There are 94 families and 348 people in total staying at D.C. hotels, Bowser said Thursday.
