Texas and Arizona bus thousands of migrants to US capital

The move by Republican governors protesting Biden’s US border policies has been dismissed as a ‘political stunt’ but is straining capital’s resources. “We heard that here, we would get support and help to get where we need to go, which is New York.” They are among more than 7,000 migrants who have been bused from Texas and Arizona to the nation’s capital since April, in what critics call a “political stunt” by the Republican governors of the two states to protest President Joe Biden’s border policies. “Both Governor Abbott and Governor have made clear that this is a political stunt that they are carrying out to send a political message to the Biden administration, regardless of how much it costs the states of Texas and Arizona, or how it impacts the migrants or the people on the ground,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the policy director at the American Immigration Council, told Al Jazeera. “For migrants themselves, even those who voluntarily get on a bus to DC, being used as a political weapon is inherently degrading.” A ‘racist stunt’ In the dining room of the church, whose officials asked Al Jazeera not to reveal its name because of security concerns, volunteers lay out food, clothing and hygiene kits for newly arriving migrants, many of whom are ultimately headed to other US destinations. The Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network has denounced that request as an effort to “militarise” an issue that should be handled in a more humanitarian fashion: “We are worried that issues that happen at the border will all start happening in DC – guards who don’t care about people, separation of families, and increased surveillance,” organiser Ashley Tjung told Al Jazeera.