Buses carrying migrants from Texas usually have been dropping passengers off around Washington’s Union Station. Volunteers were prepared to receive a bus Thursday at the station but learned that the buses went to the Naval Observatory instead, volunteers said.
Thursday’s passengers included families and young men. Around 70% to 80% of the migrants are from Venezuela, according to volunteers. They had a few belongings in trash bags and some documents.
Some are trying to go to other places in the US, such as Chicago and New York, but on Thursday were waiting to be picked up and taken to receive help, volunteers said.
SAMU First Response, one of the groups helping migrants in Washington, was not provided a heads up, according to the group’s managing director, Tatiana Laborde.
Abbott’s tweet Thursday took aim at President Joe Biden’s administration and Harris.
“VP Harris claims our border is ‘secure’ & denies the crisis,” the governor tweeted. “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border.”
US grapples with uptick in Venezuelan migrants
Migrants who are released from government custody are allowed to move about the United States as they go through their immigration proceedings. The US has been grappling with an uptick of Venezuelan migrants who have fled a deteriorating situation in that country in large numbers.
Frosty relations between the US and Venezuela keeps the US from deporting certain people. Many Venezuelan migrants are also seeking asylum upon arriving in the US.
Two medical situations involving Thursday’s passengers were reported: a diabetic who had not refrigerated his insulin in at least 40 hours, and a person with a rash believed to have come from crossing the Rio Grande, which separates Texas and Mexico, volunteers said.
