Washington, D.C. Mayor May Have Made a Wrong Call on Handling Texas Migrants

Mayor Bowser and migrants in Washington, D.C.Screenshot from Twitter

The head of the advocacy group for migrants wanted to get Washington, D.C. involved earlier in handling the migrants. But the mayor went the other route and tried to get Federal support with the National Guard. Now, the city is paying the price as they struggle.

It was a little over a month ago, that Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a national emergency for Washington D.C. After repeated attempts to get National Guard support, the mayor was denied each time.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott began bussing migrants to Washington, D.C. in April according to the Texas Tribune. It wasn’t until September that New York Mayor Eric Adams declared a State of Emergency for the city as New York declared an emergency less than two months after the first busload began.

Chicago started receiving migrants in September and Chicago City Council has asked Mayor Lori Lightfoot to declare a State of Emergency but she has not.

Abel Nunez, the director of Carecen, a local advocacy group for migrants, said:

“We’re happy that the (migrant service) office was done, that an emergency was declared,” Nunez said. “But yes, it is taking far too long. We know what we needed. We need a physical space where we can receive the immigrants coming in so that we can better do intake for them so that we can get them to where they need to be.”

“And the office is coming in as a consultant. There’s not a full position. There’s no sense that in the next budget cycle that it will be included. So I think a lot of people coming in may hesitate to take this position.”

Mayor Bowser said at a news conference last month:

“We don’t have a likely space in the District. We continue with partner organizations to look for that type of space.”

The officials from the mayor’s office did not provide a comment on when a leader will be hired or when a site will be found.

This video aired about two months ago with migrants sleeping on Washington, D.C.

streets:

Do you think Mayor Bowser made the wrong call on how to handle the migrants from Texas?