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The Pentagon refused to send National Guard troops, as the District of Columbia had requested, to attend to migrants who are arriving in the US capital on buses chartered by Texas.
A Pentagon official told Efe that the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, “has declined” to approve the request of the Security and Emergency Management Agency of the District of Columbia, in which it was requested that they provide members of the National Guard “to help transport and receive the migrants”.
The source added that they made this decision after concluding that the measure “could negatively affect” the readiness of the National Guard.
Pentagon on attention to migrants
After knowing the position of the Department of Defense, the mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser, pointed out that when a mayor says that he needs the National Guard to support “a security operation.” She hopes that the request will be considered fairly.
Bowser announced last week that he had asked to activate that body to serve the undocumented, whose Republican authorities in Texas and Arizona have been sending buses for months, given the forecast that the number of asylum seekers arriving at the border from Mexico increase in the coming months.
The political official made the request to the Pentagon, since the District of Columbia is not a state, and normally those who have the prerogative to activate the National Guard are the state governors.
Undocumented in Texas
In this way, the District of Columbia wanted to respond to the measure. This was launched at the beginning of April by the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, to send undocumented immigrants to Washington DC, in response to the decision of the government of President Joe Biden to rescind a health regulation that allowed them to be expelled by pandemic.
Later, in May, the governor of Arizona, also a Republican Doug Ducey, emulated the measure and began sending buses with migrants to the capital.
Migrant buses have continued to arrive in Washington, DC, despite a court blocking the Biden administration’s decision to end the border health rule, known as Title 42.
Transportation for undocumented
In his crusade against the federal government, Abbott, known for his ultra-conservative positions and who is seeking re-election next November, launched a website at the end of April to accept donations from people who wanted to help with the transportation of undocumented immigrants.
Activist organizations have pointed out that the migrants board the buses voluntarily and that once they arrive in Washington DC they are free to go wherever they want.
According to local media, some 3,500 undocumented immigrants have been transported to Washington DC in 135 buses since April.
Precisely this Friday, Abbott announced the first shipment to New York of a migrant bus. This when considering that it is the “ideal destination” for undocumented immigrants, since there “they can receive the abundance of services and accommodation that Mayor Eric Adams” has put for them as it is a “sanctuary city.”
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