(Bloomberg) — The White House slammed Republican governors’ efforts to bus migrants to Washington, D.C. and other Democratic enclaves without any advance notice, calling their actions “cruel” and “shameful” political stunts.
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On Thursday, two buses sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott arrived near Vice President Kamala Harris’s home. The arrival followed a similar dispatch Wednesday when two planes, sent by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, arrived in Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast best known as a tony haven for presidents and wealthy vacationers.
In a press conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused Abbott of alerting Fox News to the bus’s arrivals, but not discussing it with the Department of Homeland Security or the city of Washington.
“The fact that Fox News and not the Department of Homeland Security, the city or local NGOs were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children, on the side of a busy D.C. street makes clear that this is just a cruel, premeditated political stunt,” she said. “It’s really just disrespectful to humanity. It doesn’t afford them any dignity.”
Jean-Pierre also stressed that there is a legal way for managing migrant arrivals, and that the Biden administration has been in touch with local leadership and FEMA administrators in the cities where migrants have been bused or transported.
Abbott’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the Fox News alert claims.
California Governor Gavin Newsom asked the US Department of Justice to open an investigation into possible criminal or civil violations of federal law following accounts from migrants that they were allegedly led to believe that they’ll be transported to Boston.
“I’m formally requesting the DOJ begin an immediate investigation into these inhumane efforts to use kids as political pawns,” tweeted Newsom, a Democrat who has been escalating jabs at his Republican counterparts over social issues.
Republican governors in border states have been sending thousands of people north — more than 10,000 from Texas alone — to Democratic-led cities including New York, Washington and Chicago, saying they should help handle the results of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
In a tweet, Abbott said the decision to send people to D.C. was meant to force the Biden administration to “secure the border.” The migrants had previously been in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing the US-Mexico border. Abbott’s busing efforts have cost more than $14.1 million as of Aug. 18, local Austin news outlet KXAN reported last week.
In Martha’s Vineyard, about 50 migrants were receiving shelter and aid Thursday. The two planes carrying the migrants who arrived on the island Wednesday “were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske told Fox News Digital. The governor’s rapid-response director, Christina Pushaw, tweeted that Martha’s Vineyard, “a community of billionaires with 8-12 bedroom mansions,” was well-equipped to to care for migrants.
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Church and community groups quickly stepped up to help the migrants, according to reports from the island, but local lawmakers also expressed anger at the unexpected arrivals.
“The Governor of one of the biggest states in the nation has been spending time hatching a secret plot to round up & ship people — children, families — lying to them about where they’re going just to gain cheap political points,” tweeted Massachusetts state Representative Dylan Fernandes, who represents Martha’s Vineyard.
(Updates with reaction from Newsom in the seventh paragraph.)
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