Three buses from Texas dropped off about 140 recent migrants – including babies and young children – near the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, DC, in historically freezing temperatures on Saturday evening.
The fall seems to be the last example of effort by officials in Republican-led states — including the Republican governor. Greg Abbott – to bus migrants to liberal strongholds like New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
But immigration activists said Saturday’s incident was particularly cruel because of freezing temperatures in Washington, DC, and the fact that it happened on Christmas Eve.
Madhvi Bahl, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, confirmed the arrival of the migrants to NBC News on Saturday. Bahl called the stunt “horrific” and said “it shows cruelty is the goal.”
His organization was one of many that helped provide shelter for migrants who arrived on Saturday.
“DC was ready and we showed up and greeted people, like we’ve been doing for months now,” she added.
Bahl said the three buses of around 140 migrants arrived from places in Texas including Del Rio, Laredo and Eagle Pass – all towns along the US border with Mexico – and most of the arrivals were originating from countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
The jettisoned buses transport the migrants near Harris’ residence at the Naval Observatory.
There were young children and babies on the buses that arrived, although Bahl said the group did not immediately know how many. Many of the adults who arrived had no shoes on, while others wore flip-flops or sandals, she said.
Saturday night temperatures in parts of Washington, DC reached as high as 10 degrees — one of the region’s coldest Christmas Eve in recent history.
“These people were frozen,” Bahl said.
The Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, along with other groups, picked up the migrants and brought them to shelters where there was food and warm clothing. The group also helps many arrivals find transportation to reach their final destination.
Messages left by NBC News at Abbott’s office were not immediately returned. The Department of Homeland Security has made a comment.
The White House, in a statement, blamed Abbott for the stunt and accused him of ‘abandoning children on the side of the road in sub-freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with authorities. federal or local.
“It was a cruel, dangerous and shameful stunt,” Abdullah Hasan, deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement.
“As we have said repeatedly, we are ready to work with anyone – Republican or Democrat – on real solutions, like comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures that President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives at risk,” Hasan added.
Buses full of migrants began arriving in Liberal strongholds without warning earlier this year as Abbott, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Florida Governor. Ron DeSantis have sought to use the tactic to draw attention to what they say is the failure of the Biden administration’s border policies.
Thousands of migrants have since arrived in New York, Washington, Chicago and beyond, sending officials to those cities interference to provide them with a system of support services. I am
Texas alone has sent nearly 15,000 migrants to other cities since April, according to an NBC News review.
There have been several cases of migrants dropped off at or near Harris’s residence.
Associated press contributed.
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