District Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has repeatedly declared Washington a “sanctuary city,” driving home the point, in 2018, by denouncing the Trump administration’s policies, celebrating the city’s “diversity and inclusivity,” and proclaiming “we are not a country of fear and cruelty.” Those were inspiring words, but only in recent months has the mayor been challenged to back them up with policies and resources. Finally, on Thursday — better late than never — she unlocked millions of dollars in city funds through an emergency declaration in the face of a mounting influx of Latin American migrants arriving by bus from states along the southwest border.
D.C. Mayor Bowser promised a ‘sanctuary city.’ Now it’s crunch time.
Ms. Bowser’s move was forced by that slow-moving crisis, generated by Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona. The governors, Republicans eager to goad President Biden for immigration policies they regard as a useful electoral cudgel, last spring seized on the stunt of busing migrants to Washington and, later, New York City and, most recently, Chicago — a trickle that has now become an inundation. “Disgusting,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said Thursday of the governors’ tactics, complaining, “They are trying to sow chaos around the country, not just here in Chicago.”
In the cacophony of political hyperbole over migrants, whose apprehensions at the border have spiked in recent months, the governors’ gamesmanship rates as little more than a peep. The White House has scarcely taken notice of the hundreds of eastbound buses that have arrived in the District since April, and twice the Pentagon brushed off Ms. Bowser’s request for National Guard troops to help handle logistics arising from the arrival of what is rapidly approaching 10,000 migrants.
Nonetheless, the governors’ caper has been politically effective to the extent that it has posed a growing dilemma for Democratic officials, provoking their pique. “Mayors do a lot of things, but we’re not responsible for a broken immigration system,” Ms. Bowser said.
That’s not really right. In fact, state and local officials nationwide must accommodate a flow of migrants — in schools, shelters, streets — impelled to seek refuge in the United States by terrible conditions in their countries and the relative security and availability of jobs in this one. Ms. Bowser’s emergency declaration, enabling her to tap $10 million in city funds, will help fund an Office of Migrant Services to oversee meals, medical care and temporary housing for the new arrivals.
That’s a smart move. It is also a recognition that there is no end in sight to the procession of buses inbound to Union Station from Texas and Arizona. Ms. Bowser, having dawdled until now in hopes the federal government would solve the problem, has left increasingly overwhelmed nonprofit groups to deal with the migrants. Now she needs to formulate a long-term plan that reflects the reality of the migrants’ increasing numbers — whether or not the federal government reimburses the city, as she hopes, and as it should do.
It’s true that a large majority of roughly 9,400 migrants who have disembarked so far in Washington have stayed briefly before heading elsewhere. It’s also true that the share remaining in the city has steadily increased, and now amounts to about 15 percent of the new arrivals. Several hundred are staying at two hotels in the city, and about 70 have enrolled in D.C. public schools.
Ms. Bowser didn’t directly ask for this problem. Nonetheless, it’s hers to solve.
Source: WP
