When Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser was asked directly if President Joe Biden has done a good job handling the border crisis, she had a vague response, saying “everyone needs to work harder.”
On Wednesday, Bowser and other US mayors were set to meet behind closed doors to discuss the surge of immigrants in their cities, as the federal government, states and local municipalities have been transporting or relocating asylum seekers from overwhelmed border communities. . The US Conference of Mayors is holding its winter meeting and will hold a closed session on “Responding to the Influx of Immigrants” on Wednesday.
Bowser was previously asked if Biden’s response was enough.
“I think everyone has to work harder to make sure that people have opportunities where they live and that we have legal pathways for people to come,” Bowser told Fox News. “Listen, I think we live in the greatest country in the world, and as long as people don’t have opportunities where they live, they’re going to want to be in the greatest country in the world. So we have to get our national leaders to make sure that we have a immigration policy that is fair, that is predictable, and that works and that works for America.”
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“Do you think the president is doing that?” asked Fox News correspondent Hillary Vaughn.
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks to reporters on January 11, 2023.
(Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I think the president can’t change the law. That’s the job of Congress,” Bowser said. “So I expect everyone from the administration to Congress to work. We’re at the United States Conference of Mayors meeting. It’s not the mayor’s job to change immigration policy, but it’s our job to deal with it when it’s at our doorstep. So we call on everyone, from Congress to the President, to make sure that we have a national immigration policy that is fair, predictable, and works for our country.”
This week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the increase of some 40,000 immigrants in the Big Apple is estimated to cost the city at least $1 billion this fiscal year alone. But the mayor said he needed to secure more than funding from the federal government, and called for a “national czar” to better help coordinate immigrant housing. He suggested a “decompression strategy” of moving immigrants out of the Big Apple to other communities or suburban cities where, if allowed, the immigrants could help fill labor shortages.
President Joe Biden delivers a speech on border security on January 5, 2023.
(Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Adams, whose administration opened emergency shelters and a tent camp on Randall’s Island to house asylum seekers, said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been housing immigrants in the basements of public libraries, and he noted that Washington, DC, “is already dealing with its own housing crisis, where people have to live in tents.”
“On immigration, you’ve seen a lot of immigrants bused into DC That’s created a financial burden for your city. Are you frustrated that more isn’t being done to handle the immigration crisis at the border to keep you from coming here?” Vaughn asked Bowser on Wednesday.
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks during a news conference on November 9, 2022 in Washington.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“Well, you’ve heard me say many, many times that we need a national immigration policy that works, and we need Congress to deal with that so that we have legal immigration, legal ways for people to come into our country and that we have ways legal for people to work when they get here,” Bowser said.
Bowser also called for more assistance from the federal government to relocate immigrants.
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“We’ve made it very clear that we believe the federal government should be a part of how people move around the country. It shouldn’t be ad hoc governors making decisions about how to move people in highly unpredictable ways and often times, inhuman”. , promise, make promises that are not kept at the other end of bus rides,” Bowser said. “So I think there are ways, and we’ve seen other examples of how the federal government can be a part of those movements.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
