The Pentagon has denied Washington D.C.’s request for a National Guard deployment to help manage illegal aliens arriving in the district.
The decision comes after D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser requested National Guard assistance in response to an influx of aliens arriving from Arizona and Texas.
Bowser has cried foul over border states busing in the migrants from border communities.
Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona point to the move as a response to federal refusal to enforce immigration laws and deport the migrants.
Washington, D.C., does have a National Guard, but the district’s mayor isn’t the commander of the force like state governors normally are.
A Department of Defense official pointed to existing federal funding for a program intended to care for the migrants.
“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 DOD statement said, according to WTTG-TV.
States such as Texas have deployed their National Guard for a border security mission, but it’s less clear how the Guard would be used in the way Bowser envisioned.
Bowser requested that the D.C. National Guard make a Guard armory available to shelter migrants.
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The mayor has claimed that charities and open-border nongovernmental organizations in the city have been overwhelmed by a tidal wave of migrants with nowhere to go but homeless shelters.
Bowser sought 150 soldiers and airmen to provide a “24/7 operation” to receive the migrants.
The service members likely would’ve staffed a processing center for incoming aliens.
The Pentagon’s statement on the decision indicated that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declined to authorize the deployment.
“We have determined providing this support would negatively impact the readiness of the DCNG and have negative effects on the organization and members,” said the military of Bowser’s request.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has also lashed out at Republican governors for busing the migrants north.
An inflow of illegal aliens under President Joe Biden has smashed existing records, as deportations plummet to the lowest levels in decades.
The immigration courts and asylum officers denied more than 70 percent of asylum claims under President Donald Trump, a figure that has declined under Biden.
