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The White House on Monday accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of endangering lives after busloads of migrants from the southwestern border in Texas who were dropped near Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' home in Washington, D.C., on a cold Christmas Eve.
Abbott, a Republican and a vocal critic of the Biden administration immigration policies, has not acknowledged the Christmas Eve drop and his office has not claimed responsibility.
An estimated 110 to 130 migrants seeking asylum in the U.S, many of them families with children, were placed on buses by Texas officials, immigrant aid groups said on Sunday after the migrants arrived in the U.S. capital.
"Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities," White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said in a statement, adding these “political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger."
Large sections of the U.S.are experiencing one of the worst winter storms ever. The storm has killed at least 50 people as of Monday morning, according to an NBC News tally. The National Weather Service said "hazardous travel conditions" were expected to continue over the next few days and that they would slowly ease over the new year.
Texas has bused thousands of migrants to storm-battered Washington, New York City and Chicago, in what some critics have labeled a stunt amid a national debate over the high levels of immigrant arrivals along the U.S. southern border.
Abbott has said previously his state was overburdened with thousands of immigrants crossing into Texas everyday who risk freezing to death on city streets, and had claimed that he was purposefully busing migrants to sanctuary cities, where law enforcement is discouraged from deporting immigrants.
Richard Cortez, a Judge in Hidalgo County, which borders Mexico in Texas, on Monday told CNN that localities in Texas like his were overwhelmed by the number of immigrants and could not accommodate them all, adding that taking immigrants out of his county is a way to help localities though it's not a solution to the problem.
Hasan said the Biden administration was willing to work with Democrats and Republicans on solutions to the migrant issue.
According to NPR reports, the migrants were immediately transferred to a church that distributed hot food and clothes in Washington, and nearly all the migrants dropped near the vice president's home were already on their way to relatives and friends in the U.S.
(Reuters)
