Texas sends buses with migrants to Kamala Harris' residence in Washington

The governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, has sent more than 8,000 migrants by bus from the border to Washington DC and New York in recent months in a political maneuver to denounce the crisis caused in his state, he says, due to the arrival incessant number of asylum seekers.

This Thursday, at least two of those buses, which used to arrive at stations in the capital, went instead to the doors of the residence of the vice president, Kamala Harris, at the Naval Observatory, according to the Fox News network, to redouble that political pressure.

On board were between 75 and 100 migrants, including Venezuelans, Uruguayans and Colombians, sent from Eagle Pass, Texas.

That political turn coincided with the announcement by the governor of Florida of an initiative similar to that of Texas and Arizona (which has also sent buses of migrants to cities governed by Democrats).

Its governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, sent at least 50 migrants on two planes to the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, a popular summer destination for millionaires.

Immigrants walk towards Union Station after arriving in Washington DC on August 26. Nathan Posner / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

DeSantis recalled that he has budgeted 12 million dollars to send migrants to states such as Massachusetts, New York or California, which "will better facilitate the care of these individuals who have been invited to enter." Asked weeks ago, DeSantis said he was willing to join the campaign in Texas and Arizona, but he argued that he was not doing so because migrants do not arrive in Florida crossing the border. That is not true: undocumented migrants do arrive, by sea, fundamentally from Cuba. However, those who have sent Martha's Vineyard appear to have come to Florida from Texas after crossing the border and traveling to the state on their own.

Abbott began sending migrant buses to Washington DC in April in protest of President Joe Biden's immigration policy.

Since then he has sent thousands to New York and Chicago as well.

The mayor of the capital, Democrat Muriel Bowser, declared a health emergency on Monday due to the lack of resources to attend to all the newcomers.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker issued a disaster declaration Wednesday to expedite aid in Chicago and mobilize the National Guard.

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Abbott has spent more than $12.7 million sending migrants, according to CNN.

He says that asylum seekers are transferred to other cities voluntarily and with written permission, although he does not clarify what other options they were offered.

Dylan Fernandes, a representative from Massachusetts, criticized the use of human lives as "political pawns."

“Many (of the migrants) do not know where they are.

They say they were told they would be given housing and work," the congressman added.