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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Washington DC., Mayor Muriel Bowser has cried out over more than 5,100 migrants transported by bus to Washington, DC by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Bower asked the
National Guard for help with migrant crisis, according to a letter obtained by
CNN affiliate WUSA.
Abbott’s
office said more than 5,100 migrants have arrived in Washington from Texas on
more than 135 buses.
How did migrant crisis in Washington begin?
The migrant
crisis began after Republican Governors Doug Ducey of Arizona and Greg Abbott
of Texas began shipping migrants from their states to Washington after
President Joe Biden said in April he would lift a Trump-era order restricting
border crossings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The first
bus arrived in mid-April, but city officials and non-government organizations working
with the migrants who travel voluntarily- have been increasingly concerned
about the number of migrants arriving in recent weeks.
Christopher
Rodriguez, director of Washington, D.C.'s emergency management agency, said in
the letter on behalf of the mayor, that the situation has reached "tipping
points" as more buses arrived in the last month, according to Newsweek.
DC Mayor Bowser asks National Guard for help over migrants transported from Texas
The mayor asked
the National Guard "to help prevent a prolonged humanitarian crisis in the
nation's capital" where efforts by nonprofits helping migrants resettle in
the country became "unsustainable" as they are "overwhelmed and
underfunded," according to Newsweek.
CNN reported
that the mayor's office is requesting to convert the DC Armory, Joint Base
Bolling, Fort McNair or another "suitable federal location in the National
Capital Region" into a processing center for the migrants. The regional welcome
center established to receive the migrants in Montgomery County, Maryland,
could no longer receive further migrants, according to the request.
A statement
from Abbott's office said that DC's request for help proves his point about the
need for the White House to better address its immigration policies.
"Washington,
DC, finally understands what Texans have been dealing with every single day, as
our communities are overrun and overwhelmed by thousands of illegal immigrants
thanks to President (Joe) Biden's open border policies," Abbott's press
secretary Renae Eze said in a statement to CNN.
"If the
mayor wants a solution to this crisis, she should call on President Biden to
take immediate action to secure the border -- something he has failed to
do," Eze added.
On Thursday Bowser called on federal authorities to deal with the crisis before it escalates.
"I've
asked for the deployment of the Guard as long as we need the Guard to deal with
the crisis that we expect to escalate," Bowser said, CNN reported.
"The number of people crossing the border seeking asylum we expect to only
go up. And we need to make sure that there is a national response, not an ad
hoc, city-by-city, state-by-state response."
Bowser also
highlighted the differences in the situation in DC over other states. "We
need to ask the President for the use of our National Guard, which we know can
be very helpful in these logistical matters."