Political discord explodes in US over migrants transported from states to cities

Washington, Sep 17

Discord between the Republicans and Democrats is exploding in the US over migrants sent from the country's southern border states to cities in the northeast.

Two buses from Texas dropped off over 100 migrants outside Vice President Kamala Harris' residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning, reports Xinhua news agency.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has chartered buses to transport migrants from his state to the US capital since April, said that the latest group of individuals came from Colombia, Cuba, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela.

A Republican, Abbott accused President Joe Biden and his deputy, Harris, of "ignoring and denying the historic crisis at our southern border, which has endangered and overwhelmed Texas communities for almost two years".

On Thursday evening, Biden, a Democrat, criticized Abbott and other Republican Governors over the relocation of migrants, saying that they are "playing politics with human beings, using them as props".

"What they're doing is simply wrong," Biden told attendees at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Gala. "It's reckless. And we have a process in place to manage migrants at the border."

Abbott added New York City and Chicago as additional drop-off locations last month.

His "busing strategy" has sent over 10,000 migrants to what Republicans call "sanctuary cities".

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has made a similar move and bused thousands of migrants to states and cities run by Democrats over the past few months.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another Republican, sent two planes of migrants to Martha's Vineyard, an island in Massachusetts, on Wednesday.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced on Friday a new shelter at Joint Base Cape Cod "for the approximately 50 migrants who arrived in Martha's Vineyard this week".

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, took a shot at DeSantis over the flights of migrants to Martha's Vineyard, saying in a tweet that "exploiting vulnerable people for political stunts is repulsive and cruel".

California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried have suggested separately that they would ask the Department of Justice to look into DeSantis over the migrants sent to Massachusetts.

Federal agents have made about 1.82 million arrests at the country's southern border so far this fiscal year, according to figures released by the Customs and Border Protection last month.