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White House denies Mayor Bowser National Guard request, but finds a way to help liberal cities with migrants

August 6, 2022 | | Print Article

Democrats continue to cry and moan about being held to their own standards vis-a-vis illegal migration.

Specifically, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre complained Friday about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott funneling illegal aliens to the Democrats’ home turfs in Washington, D.C., New York, and elsewhere.

“It’s the latest stunt from the governor. Another stunt of busing desperate migrants across the country. And he’s using them as a political ploy. I mean, this is what he’s been doing, and it’s shameful,” she kvetched during a press briefing.

Republican border-state governors like Abbott have been busing illegals to Democrat metropolitans to give Dems a taste of their own medicine.

These illegals have been flooding border states for over a year now, and in the process, they’ve been using up these states’ vital resources.

The goal of Abbott’s so-called “stunt” is to have the illegals use up Democrat resources so that Dems finally understand what it’s like being a border state.

Continuing her remarks Friday, Jean-Pierre added that, regarding the D.C. area, the administration has tapped into the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide support for the throngs of illegals arriving in the city.

“FEMA is providing support, including through grant funding. So we are helping in that regard. We have had constructive conversations with Mayor [Muriel] Bowser and her team; we’ll continue to do that. We are committed to working with them, as we do with all other electeds as well,” she said.

That being said, the Biden administration has reportedly denied Bowser’s request for National Guard assistance as well.

“The Biden administration on Friday denied D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s request for assistance from the National Guard to help the city process the busloads of migrants that Republican governors in Texas and Arizona have been sending to the nation’s capital, leaving the District scrambling to accommodate them,” The Washington Post reported.

She was reportedly not pleased.

“When the mayor of the District says she needs or he needs … the D.C. National Guard to support the safe operation of our city, we expect a fair consideration,” she said during a press briefing Friday.

However, the administration defended the decision on the basis that deploying the National Guard to deal with the influx of migrants would weaken its readiness.

“We have determined providing this support would negatively impact the readiness of the DCNG and have negative effects on the organization and members. We understand SAMU First Response has received grant funding through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, and has indicated that sufficient EFSP funds exist at this point to provide migrant assistance,” the administration said.

All this comes as the border crisis continues to grow worse — so much so that even Bloomberg’s editorial board, which reportedly isn’t right-wing, is now crying foul.

In an editorial published Wednesday, the board accused the Biden administration of “fueling migrant misery and domestic anger” via its “inattention and ineptitude.”

“In June, authorities recorded 191,898 apprehensions at the border, following more than 222,000 the previous month. Would-be migrants have been processed after crossing the southwestern border more than 1.7 million times so far this year, already exceeding last year’s record-setting tally. Distinctive catastrophes — such as the deaths of 53 migrants in an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio in June — have only punctuated these grim figures,” the board wrote.

“With this influx has come a host of related problems. Human trafficking has surged. Huge amounts of illegal weapons and drugs — in particular, fentanyl — have turned up at the border. So far this year, 56 migrants have been flagged by the Terrorist Screening Database, up from 15 last year. More than 15,000 unaccompanied children were picked up in June alone. Border-state governors have been sending busloads of asylum seekers to Washington, where social-safety nets are fraying as a result.”

The board was correct. About two weeks ago, New York City Mayor Eric Adams begged the Biden administration for help because the hordes of illegals flooding his city were eating up the city’s social service resources.

The problem, of course, was that the administration itself — not Republican border-state governors — was to blame for the crisis.

Recall that during former President Donald Trump’s tenure in office, border crossings dropped to a record low because of two specific policies: Remain in Mexico and Title 42.

The problem is that current President Joe Biden has “been trying to shut down both programs since the start of his presidency, without specifying plausible alternatives,” according to Bloomberg’s editorial board.

“He has proposed a funding cut for border apprehensions and removals. He published an ill-conceived reform structure that seemed to act as an invitation for further migration without laying the necessary groundwork. Vice President Kamala Harris — deputized by Biden to head up a response to the crisis — has spent just three days in Latin America over 16 months,” the board noted in its editorial.

In other words, the administration has done nothing but exacerbate the crisis. This is why, critics say, the administration shouldn’t be taken seriously when it tries to pin the blame on Republican governors …

Vivek Saxena
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