Washington DC is trying to get assistance from the National Guard to deal with the thousands of migrants that are being transported to the city from Texas and Arizona.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said the situation is a “humanitarian crisis” in the nation’s capital and she asked for three months of National Guard deployment.
In her request, the mayor said that most of the people bused to the city need assistance for about three days and then leave the area.
The Defense Department, in a letter to the city, said the city should use private sources, and that the use of the DC National Guard would interrupt their training and affect their ability to be ready if they are needed for other situations. The letter also said that the National Guard doesn’t have the necessary training to provide food, sanitation and support of the migrants’ needs.
The Mayor requested 150 Natural Guard members per day and suggested the National Armory as a suitable location to process, house and assist the migrants, but her request was rejected by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said that the Armory was not equipped to house the migrants. He had also rejected an earlier request by the mayor.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been providing food and shelter for the arrival of thousands of people into DC, who often have nowhere else to go and no-one else to care for them.
Since the Spring of 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey have been sending busloads of migrants to Washington, DC and NYC, as a protest in response to what they feel is ineffective control of migrants seeking asylum at the Mexican border. Migrant entry had been restricted during the years that COVID-19 was out of control, but President Biden stopped the restriction and allowed more people to enter the US.
More than 8,000 migrants have arrived in Washington, DC and more than 900 have been bused to NYC.
The governors of Texas and Arizona are expelling the problem, that they feel the more “liberal” cities should take responsibility for. The governors assert that migrants can have more accessibility to support and family in NYC and DC.
However, many of the people who are arriving at bus stations in NYC and DC, have no family or friends and need immediate assistance.
Governor Ducey says that the migrants volunteer to travel to the northern cities, and that the area they arrive in, in Arizona, does not have the ability to house and process them. Mayor Bowser said the “volunteers” are being “tricked” with false promises.
The mayor is concerned about the situation getting worse, as the numbers grow. Because DC is not a state, it does not have its own access to National Guard troops.
Private, local charities have been providing money and care to help the migrants, and FEMA has given a $1 million grant, but the mayor says she needs more help and funds will soon be exhausted.