Busing Migrants to DC

I find this story simultaneously tragic and comic. The editors of the Washington Post are irate that Texas Gov. Abbott is busing migrants who cross our southern border without authorization to DC, New York, and Los Angeles:

A recent slowdown in the stream of buses bearing migrant asylum seekers to D.C. from the southwest border has paused talk about what Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has called a “humanitarian crisis.” Don’t be misled. It is likely that many more buses are on their way, owing to the Republican stuntmen who govern Texas and Arizona, and that D.C. will again be overwhelmed by migrants needing at least temporary shelter as well as medical and other assistance. That means the city, along with federal agencies and nonprofit organizations now handling the problem with little support, need to prepare now.

The buses are an act of political gamesmanship initiated this spring by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R); Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) promptly followed suit. Their aim is to embarrass the Biden administration and generate headlines on the surge in illegal border crossings, which the GOP is using as a political cudgel in the midterm elections.

Some 7,000 migrants are thought to have arrived in D.C. since the spring. Others are being bused to New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams (D), by verbally sparring with Mr. Abbott, has positioned himself as a convenient foil for a Texas governor seeking a third term in office.

Some of the migrants — from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and elsewhere — have suffered trauma in their trek north. Many have immediate needs on arrival, for food, shelter and medical attention. The large majority who arrive in Washington are transients who intend to board a bus, train or plane for another destination. But hundreds have stayed, and many more will do so in the coming months.

This story received substantial commentary in the talking heads programs yesterday.

The situation of the migrants themselves is tragic. The comic aspects are many including the consternation of leaders in cities that had declared themselves “sanctuary cities” and the observations by those in the media that Texas citizens are paying for the migrants’ transportation. I’m pretty sure that Texans are aware that the migrants cost them a lot more when they remain in Texas.

There are so many ways this issue could be remedied it’s hard to know where to start. The federal government could exert more efforts at stemming the flood of migrants pouring across our southern border, estimated to be over 2 million this year. If President Biden devoted as much energy to warning migrants not to come as he did to inviting them to come during the campaign, it might help. And then there’s always the proposal I made years ago: if Washington paid the entire cost of housing, feeding, educating, etc. migrants here illegally, I suspect the reaction of people in Texas and Arizona might well be different. After all securing the border is the federal government’s responsibility. Make it next to impossible for migrants without green cards to work in the U. S. as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand do.