On Saturday, Christmas Eve, more than 100 immigrants arrived by bus at Vice President Kamala Harris’ house in Washington, D.C.
Tatiana Laborde, the managing director of a nonprofit called SAMU First Response, told The Associated Press that 110 to 130 immigrants were loaded onto three buses, including young children.
The Washington Post reported it was the coldest Christmas Eve ever in Washington, D.C. Some of the migrants were seen wearing only T-shirts, and local organizers handed out blankets to the people who arrived, according to AP.
The migrants are from Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela and were rerouted from New York to D.C. after inclement weather forced the buses to change the destination, as reported by CNN. The migrants are only expected to stay for a short amount of time and then continue on to New York.
Earlier this year, the Deseret News reported on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to send thousands of immigrants to the East Coast as a political statement against the federal government.
White House representative Abdullah Hasan was quick to blame Abbott for this Christmas Eve busing as well, Reuters reported, although there was no confirmed response from Abbott’s office until Monday.
“Gov. Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below-freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any federal or local authorities,” Hasan said in a statement on Sunday, per ABC News.
“We are willing to work with anyone — Republican or Democrat alike — on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger,” Hasan continued.
On Monday, Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze told ABC that all migrants “willingly chose to go” and “signed a voluntary consent waiver available in multiple languages upon boarding that they agreed on the destination.”
She added to this statement, as reported by Politico, “Instead of their hypocritical complaints about Texas providing much-needed relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities, President Biden and Border Czar Harris need to step up and do their jobs to secure the border — something they continue failing to do.”