Buses of immigrants from Texas disembarked near the residence of VP Harris

Kamal Harris

Buses of immigrants from Texas disembarked near the residence of VP Harris.

Two buses of immigrants from the US-Mexico border were dropped off near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in a residential area of ​​Washington Thursday morning in a bitter political battle over the Biden administration's immigration policies.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is moving immigrants from Texas to cities with Democratic mayors as part of a political strategy this year because he says there are too many cross-border arrivals into his state. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has also adopted the policy, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently shared it. Former President Donald Trump first dreamed of it.

Abbott tweeted that he dispatched the buses that arrived Thursday: "We're sending immigrants to her backyard to invite the Biden administration to do its job and secure the border."

About two dozen men and women stood in front of the US Naval Observatory at dawn, clutching transparent plastic bags carrying their belongings across the border, before proceeding to a nearby church. There was no immediate comment from Harris' office.

The constant influx of migrant buses caused a stampede in Washington, where Mayor Muriel Bowser called for federal intervention and the formation of a coalition of NGOs to deal with the new arrivals, backed by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

This alliance is accustomed to the different levels of coordination between the Texas and Arizona buses.

Buses arriving from Arizona come with detailed data on passengers and their nationalities, coordination of arrival times, and medical staff on board each bus, said Tatiana Laborde, managing director of international relief agency SAMU First Response.

"They don't want just to throw people here," Laborde told The Associated Press last month.

In return, she said, Texas buses arrived chaotically. They only hear from charitable groups at the end of Texas that a bus carrying a certain number of people has left. After about 48 hours, that bus drops off its passengers at Union Station in Washington.

Thursday morning's abrupt descent outside Harris' residence suggests that governors like Abbott have been looking for new and innovative ways to articulate their political views — with the District of Columbia being the playing field.

Domingo Garcia, president of the United Latin American Citizens Association, called the move "inhumane" and accused Abbott of "using humans, children, and families as political bases."

Speaking to reporters outside Harris' home, Garcia said the two buses carrying Texas immigrants were "dumped like human trash" in Washington on Thursday. He also noted that many immigrants were "tricked into signing these releases," something the Texas and Arizona governments have denied.

He also called on Republican and Democratic politicians to come together around a "bipartisan solution to fixing the broken immigration system. I agree it's broken."

After immigrants seeking asylum cross the US-Mexico border, they spend time at a US Customs and Border Protection facility along the border until they are generally released into the US to await their cases. Republicans say Biden's policies encourage immigrants to disappear into the United States; Democrats argue that the Trump-era policy of forcing immigrants to wait until their asylum cases are completed in Mexico is inhumane.

DeSantis flew two planes of immigrants to Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday. Last week, Abbott sent about 75 immigrants to Chicago.

Bowser requested that the National Guard be deployed, but the Pentagon refused; NGOs have opposed this deployment, describing it as an unnecessary militarization of a humanitarian cause.

Last week, Bowser declared a limited public emergency on the issue of immigrants and proposed the formation of a new Office of Immigrant Services with $10 million in funding. The proposal comes before the Capital Council next week.