Migrants sent to VP’s residence from Texas for second time this week
‘These are political stunts with real human beings who are fleeing harm,’ Kamala Harris says
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Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
A group of migrants have been sent by bus from Texas and dropped off outside the vice president’s residence in Washington, DC for the second time this week.
A further 50 migrants were driven to the Naval Observatory, where Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff live, in northwest Washington on Saturday morning.
The migrants were mostly from Venezuela, with one of the arrivals being a one-month-old baby. They were picked up by aid workers who took them to a shelter, Fox News Digital reported.
Four buses were also sent to New York City as Republican governors have been criticised for using human beings as political pawns in a cynical game.
Two buses carrying migrants first arrived at the Naval Observatory on Thursday morning.
The Naval Observatory has been the vice president’s designated residence since 1974.
Some of the migrants initially brought to the residence were picked up in Eagle Pass, Texas after the buses set off from Del Rio. Both towns are situated along the border with Mexico.
Fox News Digital reported that the migrants arriving on Thursday came from Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, and Mexico. The conservative outlet reported that some of the migrants said they believe the border is open.
The buses arrived in the US capital not long after Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis sent two planes carrying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast, on Wednesday.
Attempting to make a point about border control, right-wing governors have been sending migrants to progressive areas.
Speaking to Vice News on Friday, Ms Harris said “these are political stunts with real human beings who are fleeing harm”.
“I think it is the height of irresponsibility … frankly, a dereliction of duty, when you are an elected leader, to play those kinds of games with human life,” she added.
“There were children, people being put on a bus or a plane who didn’t know where they’re going or where they were being sent. Human beings, real people who have fled harm, who came to the United States of America seeking refuge, asylum,” Ms Harris told Vice.
“Under the previous administration, they decimated a system that was designed to address immigration,” she added. “And so we have been spending in the last 18 months an incredible amount of time and work and resources to reconstruct that system. The first piece of legislation that we offered, back in January of last year, was for a pathway for citizenship. People are playing political games with that, and it’s going nowhere.”
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