Pentagon Tells DC Mayor Bowser She’s On Her Own With Migrant Caravans

So much for calling out the National Guard for the 0.01% or so of the border crisis that’s unfolding in the “sanctuary city” of Washington DC. Mayor Muriel Bowser hit the emergency alarm after 4,000 migrants arrived by bus, courtesy of Texas governor Greg Abbott, who grew tired of Beltway elites ignoring the border crisis that has overwhelmed his state and others along the border.

Now the Pentagon is canceling the alarm, telling Bowser to handle it on her own:

The Department of Defense denied D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for the National Guard to assist with the influx of migrants created by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing of migrants to the city, according to a letter reviewed by NBC News.

The letter, from the executive secretary of the Department of Defense, said the city has sufficient funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that has been given to D.C. nonprofits that can provide the immigrants with shelter and other services.

“After careful consideration the Department has concluded it cannot fulfill your request,” Kelly Bulliner Holly told Christopher Rodriguez, director of D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

The Blaze has more of Holly’s response, along with a link to Bowser’s previously enthusiastic embrace of illegal immigrants:

Holly highlighted the fact that the city already has access to federal funding through SAMU First Response, a non-governmental organization that has itself received funding via the Emergency Food and Shelter Program by FEMA. Responding to the language of Bowser’s request that the influx of over 4,000 illegals constitutes a “humanitarian crisis,” Holly noted that SAMU First Response “supplements funding for humanitarian relief efforts by government and social service organizations for the purposes of providing shelter and supportive services to families and individuals.”

In 2016, Bowser asserted that D.C. was a sanctuary city: “We celebrate our diversity and respect all DC residents no matter their immigration status.”

Bowser’s perceived inconsistency now in light of her concern over the recent influx of illegals has been the subject of some ridicule online in recent days.

Well, go figure. It’s easy to declare yourself a sanctuary city when you’re a thousand miles from the border. Bowser took advantage of an easy pose on border security while border states like Texas and Arizona bore the brunt of the costs, crime, homelessness, and other economic and social costs of illegal immigration. Declaring the American capital a sanctuary city for lawlessness should have consequences — and now, thanks to Abbott, it does.

That doesn’t just apply to DC. Remember when New York City’s mayor declared his intent to provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants and shield them from ICE?

“We should protect our immigrants.” Period.

Yes, New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration. #EricOnNBC

— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) October 20, 2021

Good times, good times. Karen wrote about the arrival of the first buses from Texas in the Big Apple a little while earlier. The New York Times is suddenly not happy about the consequences of sanctuary-city declarations and Joe Biden’s lax border policies. They blame “GOP governors” in their headline, but fail to note that the same GOP governors have been dealing with these issues on a massive scale while NYC’s mayor kept encouraging the flow:

A political tactic by the governors of Texas and Arizona to offload the problems caused by record levels of migration at the border is beginning to hit home in Washington, as hundreds of undocumented migrants arriving on the governors’ free bus rides each week increasingly tax the capital’s ability to provide emergency food and housing.

With no money and no family to receive them, the migrants are overwhelming immigrant nonprofits and other volunteer groups, with many ending up in homeless shelters or on park benches. Five buses arrived on a recent day, spilling young men and families with nowhere to go into the streets near the Capitol. …

A vast majority of recent bus riders are Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-ridden country, and many have also been arriving in New York, often via Washington. Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, announced emergency measures on Monday to enable the city to quickly build additional shelter capacity. The mayor, also a Democrat, said the city had received 4,000 asylum seekers since May, fueling a 10 percent growth in the homeless population, with about 100 new arrivals each day.

Venezuelans have been showing up daily at the offices of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York seeking help. “Their primary concern has been a place to stay, food for their children,” said Maryann Tharappel, who directs the organization’s immigrant and refugee services.

“The infrastructure in New York is not built for this,” she said. “We are not on the border.”

Yeah? Well, we are, and we’re tired of having to fund the “infrastructure” for the consequences of these open-border policies. If New York City wants to be a sanctuary city and encourage the flow of people over the border with cheap public statements, then New York City can jolly well build the infrastructure to deal with the massive border crisis that their progressive posturing has created and exacerbated.

Or — and I’m just spitballing here — maybe political leaders ought to quit pandering and expect that to be a cost- and consequence-free experience. Perhaps they should start demanding that Joe Biden and his team of incompetents start focusing on the border crisis, finish the border wall, and make sure to end all of the incentives for asylum applications that don’t involve actual asylum issues. Stop asking Texas and Arizona to foot the bill for cheap talk and posturing and start focusing on rational and effective policies.

Otherwise, we will likely keep sending people to the cities that like to offer them sanctuary. Isn’t that what they meant in the first place? Because there are plenty more where those came from.

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