Over 100 migrants were dropped off near U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' home in Washington over the Christmas weekend, immigrant aid groups said Sunday, as the White House slammed Texas for sending the migrants.
Approximately 110-130 of the migrants seeking asylum in the United States, many of them families with children, were placed on buses by Texas officials, said Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington, D.C.
She said by phone that aid groups had been informed of their journey and awaited their arrival late on Saturday to hand out blankets and then transport them to a church in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Aides to Texas Governor Greg Abbott were not available to comment on whether the state coordinated their transportation.
The Republican governor, a vocal critic of the Biden administration's immigration policies, and some other Republican governors have been transporting migrants to Democratic-controlled cities in the northern United States.
Texas has bused thousands of migrants to Washington, New York City and Chicago, in what some critics have labeled a stunt amid a national debate over the high levels of immigrant arrivals along the U.S. southern border.
Laborde said that in the past week, nine busloads of migrants have been dropped off in Washington.
"Lately, what we've been seeing is an increase in people from Ecuador and Colombia," Laborde said. Previously, many Venezuelans had been arriving by bus, she added.
Many of the most recent arrivals, Laborde said, are now attempting to go to New York or New Jersey where they have relatives or other community support.
Meanwhile, the White House on Monday accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of endangering lives after busloads of migrants on a cold Christmas Eve.
The Republican Abbott, a vocal critic of Biden administration immigration policies, has not acknowledged the Christmas Eve drop and his office has not claimed responsibility.
"Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities," White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said in a statement.
"The political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger," Hasan added.
Hasan said the Biden administration was willing to work with Democrats and Republicans on solutions to the migrant issue.
Amy Fischer, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, told NPR the migrants were immediately transferred onto city-provided buses in Washington and moved to a church that distributed hot food and clothes.
Claudia Tristán, a co-organizer with the same group, told Reuters on Monday that nearly all the migrants dropped near the vice president's home were already on their way to relatives and friends in the United States.
In a letter to Biden on Dec. 20, Abbott said the state was overburdened with thousands of men, women and children crossing into Texas every day who risk freezing to death on city streets.
Hidalgo County, Texas, Judge Richard Cortez on Monday told CNN that localities in Texas like his were overwhelmed by the number of immigrants and could not accommodate them all.
"Busing immigrants out of this area in a way helps us... but it's not a solution to the problem," said Cortez, whose county borders Mexico.
