WASHINGTON (AP) — Three busloads of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris on a record Christmas Eve.
Texas officials have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus shooting is in line with previous actions by border state governors that have drawn attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
The buses that arrived outside the vice president’s residence Saturday night were carrying between 110 and 130 people, according to Tatiana Laborde, executive director of SAMU First Response, a humanitarian agency working with the city of Washington to serve thousands of migrants who have been left behind. . in the last months.
Local organizers expected the buses to arrive Sunday, but learned Saturday that the group would arrive early in Washington, Laborde said. Among those on board were small children.
Some wore T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 degrees Celsius). It was the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington, according to the Washington Post.
Laborde said employees had blankets ready for people who arrived on Christmas Eve and quickly moved them onto waiting buses to go to an area church. A local restaurant chain donated dinner and breakfast.
Most arrivals are bound for other destinations and are expected to stay in Washington for only a short time.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday morning. His office said last week that Texas has provided bus rides to more than 15,000 people since April in Washington, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, both Republicans, are fierce critics of President Joe Biden’s handling of the US-Mexico border, where thousands of people try to cross each day, many seeking asylum. Officials on both sides of the border are seeking emergency aid to set up shelters and services for migrants, some of whom are sleeping on the streets.
Republicans say Biden and Harris, the administration’s point person on the root causes of migration, have eased restrictions that have forced many people to leave their home countries. Biden ended some policies but kept others enacted by former President Donald Trump, whose administration also faced increases at border crossings and at one point separated immigrant families and children as a deterrence initiative.
White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan called the downing of the bus “a cruel, dangerous and shameful atrocity.”
“As we have said time and time again, we are willing to work with anyone, Republican or Democrat alike, on real solutions like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures that President Biden sent to Congress in his first mandate day, but these political policies. games are played. nothing and only endangers lives,” Hasan said in a statement on Sunday.
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