A mayor of a Texas border town criticized the mayors of New York City and Washington, D.C., who have decried the Southern state transporting thousands of migrants to their cities, arguing small border towns are able to handle it every day.
Both Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York Mayor Eric Adams have condemned the migrant buses being transported to their cities, decrying the move as a “humanitarian crisis” and “inhumane.” Thousands of migrants have been transported from Arizona and Texas as the governors of those states protest what they claim is the Biden administration’s refusal to acknowledge a border crisis.
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“You see New York, you see Washington kind of drowning with a few buses,” Javier Villalobos, the mayor of McAllen, Texas, told Fox News. “We used to get over a thousand-something people a day.”
More than 6,800 migrants have been bused from Texas to the district over the last four months, and another 360 of them have been transported to New York City since last week, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office. Comparatively, McAllen has dealt with “thousands of immigrants a day,” according to Villalobos.
“I think they can handle a few hundred,” he said.
Bowser has decried Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s initiatives to send migrants to Washington, claiming that the migrants are being “tricked” into traveling farther away from their intended destinations. Local organizations have criticized Bowser’s comments, claiming that several migrants plan to stay in the Washington, D.C., area but are being denied access to city resources.
Adams has made similar claims, arguing that the migrants in Texas were “forced” to ride the bus and were “not allowed” to go to their desired locations.
“Some of the families are on the bus that wanted to go to other locations, and they were not allowed to do so. They were forced on the bus,” the mayor said last week. “Our goal is to immediately find out each family’s needs and give them the assistance they want.”
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Both Adams and Bowser have called on the federal government to assist with the influx of migrants. However, Bowser’s request to have the district’s National Guard activated was rejected by the Department of Defense.
In response, the district’s Office of the Attorney General announced it would offer grants to local humanitarian groups to help cover the costs of housing, food, clothing, transportation, and legal assistance being offered to migrants as they await processing in the district. Similarly, migrants in New York who wish to stay in the city will be offered shelter, according to Adams.
