DC Mayor Declares Public Emergency After Busloads Of Migrants Overwhelm Nation’s Capital

The emergency was declared on Sept. 8, and enables Bowser to spend $10 million establish the Office of Migrant Services, in order to help migrants arriving from border states. The city also hopes to snag some federal funding, or to be reimbursed for the expenditures.

According to Bowser’s office, the new system is necessary “so that our homeless services system can continue to function in support of DC residents and so that we can properly respond to the ongoing humanitarian crisis and provide a humane assistance to migrants.”

According to Ranae Eze, press secretary for Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, Bowser is a hypocrite.

“In a city with a population over 700,000, she’s claiming an emergency for just over 7,900 migrants being bused into her sanctuary city,” Eze told the Epoch Times. “That’s barely 1 percent of the population of Washington, D.C. The true emergency is on our nation’s southern border—not in our nation’s capital—where small Texas border towns are overrun and overwhelmed by hundreds of migrants every single day as the Biden Administration dumps them in their communities.

“Instead of fearmongering and complaining about a few thousand migrants in her sanctuary city, Mayor Bowser should call on President Biden to do his job and secure the border—something the President continues failing to do. Governor Abbott’s invitation is still open for Mayor Bowser to visit the border and see the actual crisis firsthand.”

More via the Epoch Times‘ Zachary Stieber:

Thousands of Immigrants

Texas and Arizona have been busing thousands of illegal aliens who were released by U.S. authorities to Washington since the spring. Approximately 9,400 illegal immigrants have been bused to the nation’s capital since then.

Most of them move on to other destinations, according to Washington officials. Many of the immigrants are being housed in shelters and hotel rooms.

Texas has also sent illegal immigrants to New York City and Chicago.

The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona, Abbott and Doug Ducey, respectively, say the busing will continue indefinitely. They have said they are trying to trigger a stronger response to border enforcement from President Joe Biden.

Bowser said officials thus expect hundreds more buses to drop immigrants off in Washington during the fall.

The mayor has repeatedly criticized the governors.

Bowser has twice asked the Department of Defense for National Guard assistance but has been denied both times.

“I’m very disappointed in that,” Bowser said on Sept. 8. “And I’m very disappointed in not having a federal site that we can use.”

She said conversations with the Biden administration are ongoing.