Democrats accused Texas governor of endangering people’s lives with a “cruel stunt”
Migrant families get on to a bus to transport them from near the Vice President’s residence to an area church after they arrived in Washington, December 24, 2022 © WJLA via AP
Three busses carrying around 110 to 130 migrants arrived outside the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence in Washington, DC, on Saturday night, where they were met by a local charity and shuttled to a temporary shelter at a local church.
A representative of SAMU First Response admitted that the relief agency had been expecting the arrivals, albeit a bit later, and was ready to move the families out of the cold quickly, while a local restaurant chain donated dinner and breakfast for them.
Accusing Texas authorities of abandoning people out in the “coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington,” local media shared unsettling videos of families with children, wrapped in blankets, reloading their belongings to other buses. SAMU’s Tatiana Labord said most of the arrivals were expected to remain in Washington only briefly as they are headed to “other destinations.”
#HappeningNow the second bus of migrants has arrived here in D.C. near VP Kamala Harris’ home. They are boarding another bus taking them to a church. Was just told by someone helping bring them to the church that this bus came from Texas: pic.twitter.com/Sp4upqz1yB
— Christian Flores (@CFloresNews) December 25, 2022
Texas authorities have neither confirmed nor denied their involvement yet, but Democrats immediately accused Gov. Greg Abbott, arguing that the stunt was “in line” with his and other Republican governors’ previous actions.
The third and final bus of migrants of the night of migrants buses up to D.C. from Texas arriving, with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network taking them to a church: pic.twitter.com/Y65B8RnilZ
— Christian Flores (@CFloresNews) December 25, 2022
“Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities,” White House assistant press secretary Abdullah Hasan said in a statement, calling it a “cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt.”
Abbott’s office said last week that Texas has shuttled more than 15,000 migrants to “sanctuary” cities like Washington, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia since April. It would not be the first time Abbott sends buses full of newly-arrived migrants to the DC doorstep of Vice President Kamala Harris, who has visited the border exactly once since the Biden administration tasked her with handling the crisis there last year.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis DeSantis also shipped illegal immigrants to upscale enclaves in the past. In September he sent two planes loaded with migrants to the island enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, home of the Obamas and other political heavyweights. He has long called for federal funds to pay for the relocation of illegal immigrants he claimed the federal government had shipped to Florida without advance notice or the permission of state authorities.
