The Pentagon has again rejected a request by Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to activate the National Guard to assist with the vast numbers of migrants arriving in the US capital in recent months, Fox News reported.
The DC National Guard is not trained to assist with processing migrants, Defense Department executive secretary Kelly Bulliner Holly wrote in a letter to Bowser on Monday, cited by the outlet.
"The DCNG has no specific experience in or training for this kind of mission or unique skills for providing facility management, feeding, sanitation or ground support," Holly wrote, adding:
"Approval of this request would also result in a substantial readiness impact to the DCNG… Devoting the personnel or the facility for such an extended mission would force the cancellation or disruption of military training."
In July, Bowser first requested that the National Guard be activated for help in dealing with thousands of undocumented migrants who have been transported to the city from border states. However, the US Department of Defense rejected the Washington, DC mayor’s call to have National Guard troops help process the migrants.
At the time, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said troops' "readiness" might be affected if they were diverted to assist with the situation.
Bowser followed up with another letter on August 11, requesting that 150 National Guard troops be deployed to "help prevent a prolonged humanitarian crisis in our nation's capital resulting from the daily arrival of migrants."
Crisis at US Border
Since April, an estimated 7,000 migrants have been bused from Texas to Washington, DC, with another 900 arriving in New York City, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office.
"Before we began busing migrants to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all the chaos and problems that come with it. Now, the rest of America can understand exactly what is going on," Abbott said.
Migration across the US-Mexico border has surged to record levels, with 199,976 migrant encounters registered by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in July.
Conservatives have blamed the immigration policies of US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, including his efforts to lift a pandemic-related order - Title 42 - that has kept most asylum seekers out.
In April, Greg Abbott announced a plan under which illegal migrants, increasingly flowing into his state due to Biden's reversal of Trump’s migrant restrictions, would be bused to Washington, DC.
"By busing migrants to Washington DC, the Biden administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border," Abbott said in an April 6 statement.
According to him, the program is voluntary and illegal migrants would be sent to the steps of the US Capitol after being processed and released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Arizona’s GOP Governor Doug Ducey has already sent around 1,000 migrants to Washington, DC.
Texas’ governor as well as the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, have particularly challenged Biden's migration laws and orders.
On March 5, 2021, Abbott kicked off Operation Lone Star, bringing together the Texas Department of Public Safety and the National Guard to ostensibly prevent Mexican cartels and other smugglers from moving drugs and people into the state. Since then, Texas law enforcement officials have apprehended nearly 300,000 migrants and seized 326 million lethal doses of fentanyl, according to Abbott.
The mayors of both Washington and New York have called the decision to bus migrants there “inhumane” and are looking for more federal help, CBS News reported.
Bowser, a Democrat, called the busing of migrants a "politically motivated stunt."
"We struggle with a broken immigration system in our country, and we know that cities alone cannot fix it," she tweeted.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the bus trips "shameful" and a waste of taxpayer dollars.