Biden and Bowser Fail Migrants Being Bused to DC From Texas and Arizona, Responsibility Falls to DC Community

For over a month Governor Abbott of Texas has been busing migrants from the southern border to Washington, DC as part of a cruel and racist publicity stunt. Since this began on April 13th, 2022, Texas has sent 35+ buses carrying over a thousand people, including children and infants. Last week, Governor Ducey joined Abbott and began busing people from Arizona as well. In response, DC community members have been showing up for migrants—receiving the buses at all times of day, sorting donations, finding housing, and spending around $90,000 to support them while the government does nothing.

This stunt that aims to strand asylum-seekers at Union Station to make a point to President Biden has been largely deemed a failure. However, it is not the government that has caused Abbott’s plan to fail. In fact, the Biden administration has either ignored the situation or made dismissive, glib remarks about it. The DC government has been equally absent—Delegate Norton went as far as to say that “there’s been “no strain” on the city’s resources” due to the newly arrived migrants.

“DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area community organizations and volunteers have shown up time and again to support our neighbors but we do not have the resources that the government does,” said Madhvi Bahl, from Sanctuary DMV and Free Them All VA. “DC, a self proclaimed sanctuary city, has a Mayor that refuses to even acknowledge the migrants arriving in this city. It is time for Mayor Bowser to wake up and provide the resources that our new neighbors so desperately need.”

The migrant solidarity mutual aid network, comprising over 20 DMV area community organizations, and hundreds more individual volunteers, have turned up every day to greet migrants arriving on the buses and provide food, clothes, medical care, and respite. Organizers then book transportation for folks leaving the city in coordination with local nonprofits and arrange housing for those who choose to stay. In addition to contributing funds for hotels and other lodging and church housing, people across the DMV area have opened up their homes to welcome the arriving migrants. 

Additionally, migrant-led DC worker co-ops have provided food and cleaning services, as well as served as volunteer coordinators. Dulce Hogar worker-owners have been cleaning the houses where migrants are staying while Vendedores Unidos Food Coop worker-owners are cooking and delivering meals daily to people coming off buses and those who have stayed in the area. Erly, who arrived on one of the earlier buses, immediately joined this cooking effort. “I feel so happy to be able to offer my Venezuelan food. I know personally how difficult their journeys have been. My cooking is an act of love."

This mutual aid effort is an extraordinary endeavor that builds on existing mutual aid work throughout the DMV. Solidarity groups have received monetary donations and spent around $90,000 in just over a month, not including over $20,000 in items people have ordered off their supply wish list or in-kind donations. However, as the buses increase in frequency, funding will have to vastly increase as well.

“Abbott’s violent and race-baiting tactics put our already vulnerable migrant community in line to be targeted by predatory systems like prisons,” said DC IWOC. “This grassroots community effort disrupts the State’s white supremacist agenda from further displacing our beloved community by choosing people over political gimmicks.”

Abbott and Ducey’s publicity stunt, coupled with Biden and Bowser’s apathy, is harmful to the Black and brown migrants arriving on the buses. Additionally, it is harmful to Black and brown residents of DC who rely on the mutual aid networks and organizing community who have been greatly strained by this endeavor. DC’s unhoused community continues to be harassed and evicted by a hostile local and federal government, as pandemic aid ends DC renters are facing an eviction crisis, and just this weekend two people died at the notorious DC jail. 

“The government has failed migrants being sent to DC, but the people have not,” said Artemis Whyte, from Vendedores Unidos. “DMV area organizations and community members came together overnight to create a mutual aid network reminiscent of the early pandemic and have shown up in solidarity every day since. We urge Mayor Bowser to meet our demands and provide the dignity our new neighbors deserve.”

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