Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) Monday night for dropping busloads of immigrants off outside her residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., over the past month.
During a rare late-night appearance on the talk show Late Night With Seth Meyers, Harris was asked about the busing situation after Abbott bused two other loads of immigrants to Harris’s residence last week.
KAMALA HARRIS’S MARIJUANA PROSECUTION RECORD SCRUTINIZED AFTER RECENT PARDONS
“I don’t think that, you know, playing games with people’s lives is the solution to this problem. But based on the record amount of arrests at the border, it is a problem,” Meyers said. “I think we look to our leaders at times like these. What is the path forward?”
Harris said Abbott’s response was a “dereliction of duty” and called on Abbott to help find a solution to the illegal crossings instead of dropping immigrants outside of her door. Harris also blamed the administration of former President Donald Trump for the crisis at the border, claiming the immigration system under Trump was broken.
“I just think it’s an absolute dereliction of duty,” Harris said. “If you see a problem and we agree that we need to address it, then if you’re a leader, participate in a solution. When we first came into office, the first bill that we proposed was for a pathway for citizenship, which was to fix a broken immigration system, which was broken under the previous administration.”
Harris added that the move was “political theater” and called on Abbott, Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ), and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who sent two flights of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard last month, to stop playing with people’s lives.
Kamala Harris accuses Republican governors of “dereliction of duty” for sending illegal immigrants to near her Washington, D.C. residence.
Then she blames Trump and claims it’s actually Biden who’s trying to “fix” illegal immigration (which is at record levels). pic.twitter.com/U23g36haXZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 11, 2022
“Participate in the solution because we are offering solutions,” Harris said. “But instead, [we have] this gamesmanship with real human beings who trust us.”
Abbott announced in May that he would bring the border crisis to President Joe Biden and began offering free transportation to Washington. He initially dropped immigrants off several blocks from the Capitol but later expanded the busing operation to Chicago and New York City. The busing operation is in its sixth month.
The Republican governors have maintained that all three cities are “sanctuary” zones that for years have vowed to protect people illegally residing in the United States, adding that, therefore, they ought to be willing to accept the buses of immigrants.
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The mayors have rebuked Abbott and called for federal and state assistance to house those arriving in their cities temporarily.
Since Biden took office 20 months ago, the number of noncitizens arrested after illegally entering the country from Mexico has spiked from below 50,000 per month over the past decade to between 150,000 and 230,000 each month.
