Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has declared a public emergency following the influx of migrants arriving in the city from Texas and Arizona by bus.
Bowser’s emergency declaration will allow for further funding to be allocated to handling the migrants and will lead to the founding of the Office of Migrant Services. The OMS will be responsible for temporary accommodations, urgent medical care, necessary transportation, and services.
As Bowser said on Thursday this framework will help them organize their responses better. It will also include a program that will be responsible for meeting the buses and helping migrants in the most humane, efficient, and welcoming way.
Bowser also criticized the lacking federal response and said that the District of Columbia would continue to work hard to ensure that its systems can handle the migration crisis.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bused hundreds of border-crossers to both Washington, D.C., and New York in the past few months. His argument for this move was that resources in border towns were stretched thin and it was time for D.C. and NYC to understand the reality of the border crisis.
Earlier this week, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams sent a delegation to meet with border officials in Eagle Pass, Texas to verify the situation. Currently, hundreds of migrants cross into the U.S. through that passage each day.
Abbott wrote in a New York Post op-ed that Adams previously called New York a sanctuary city and that talk is cheap, so it was time for them to understand what these migration policies were causing.
