Three buses carrying immigrants from Texas arrived in Washington, DC late Saturday, including one that dropped off near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The US Naval Observatory (USNO) is the official residence of the Vice President of the United States and the Christmas Eve return is the latest in several instances where Texas Governor Greg Abbott has transported immigrants to Washington, D.C.
The migrants were then helped by the Red de Ayuda Mutual de Solidaridad con Migrantes and taken to a local church, according to 7News reporter Christian Flores.
A photo of Vice President Kamala Harris in Dulles, Virginia, on June 17, 2022, and migrants gathered at a crossing into El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, December 20, 2022.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Governor Abbott began sending immigrants from border cities to the nation’s capital in April in an effort to pressure the Biden administration to take action on immigration enforcement and border security. This practice has been widely criticized.
TEXAS GOVERNOR ABBOTT WARNS POLAR VORTEX THREAT TO MIGRANTS DUE TO BIDEN BORDER ‘DISASTER’
In a letter Abbott sent to President Biden Tuesday, the Texas governor cited freezing temperatures in cities like El Paso as his reason for transporting the migrants, as already full migrant housing facilities were forced to to free people to the streets.
“His policies will leave many people in bitter and dangerous cold as a polar vortex moves toward Texas,” Abbott wrote. “Texas has borne an unbalanced burden caused by its open border policies.”
The Republican also called the current border crisis a “catastrophe” for which Biden was solely responsible.
“This terrible crisis for Texas border communities is a catastrophe of your own making,” he wrote. “The need to address this crisis is not the task of border states like Texas. Instead, the US Constitution dictates that it is your job, Mr. President, to defend our country’s borders, regulate our nation’s immigration, and control those who seek refuge here,” he added.
Abbott also warned that the situation would only get worse when the federal government ends Title 42 policy, which restricts the number of migrants who can enter the US.
A split photo of US President Joe Biden on October 8, 2021 in Washington, DC, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect)
The Department of Homeland Security projects between 9,000 and 15,000 migrant encounters per day after the policy ends, an increase that would add to the already highest annual total for encounters in US history.
Earlier this month, a bus from Texas carrying about 30 Nicaraguan migrants dropped its passengers off in front of Harris’ residence.
In September, several buses dropped about 100 immigrants outside the residence.
“Our so-called border zara, Vice President Kamala Harris, has yet to visit the border to see firsthand the impact of the open border policies she helped implement, going so far as to claim the border is ‘secure,'” Abbott said. . at the time. “Texas will continue to send immigrants to sanctuary cities like Washington, DC, until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their job to secure the border.”
The previous Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement discouraging immigrants from entering the US illegally and said immigration personnel would remove them under Title 42.
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to fully enforce our immigration and public health laws at the border. Individuals and families attempting to enter without authorization are being removed, as required by court order in under the Title 42 public health authority, or placed in removal proceedings,” the statement read. “As temperatures remain dangerously low along the border, no one should place their life in the hands of smugglers, or risk life and limb trying to cross only to be turned back.”
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“Regardless of nationality, any person who attempts to enter without authorization is subject to removal under Title 42,” it added. “Those who cannot be removed pursuant to Title 42 may be placed on expedited removal and anyone ordered removed subject to a 5-year entry ban under Title 8. Venezuelans attempting to enter the United States among the ports of entry also continue to be returned to Mexico, and will be excluded from the Venezuela Immigration Enforcement Process announced in October.”
And: “DHS continues to lead an entire government strategy to secure borders and build safe, orderly, and humane immigration processes.”
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The statement said there are 23,000 agents and border patrol officers working to secure the US-Mexico border and that the federal government was working closely with the Mexican government to reduce people-smuggling organizations and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“That collaboration includes migration checkpoints, additional resources and personnel, joint targets of human smuggling organizations, and increased information sharing related to transit nodes, hotels, hideouts, and staging locations,” DHS said.
US Vice President Kamala Harris in front of her residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC on September 16, 2022.
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Abbott has also transported immigrants from Texas to other Democratic-controlled cities in Chicago and Philadelphia.
Fox News’ Patrick Hauf contributed to this report.
