Tipsheet

Democratic AG Opens Investigation Into Migrant Buses Sent to D.C.

Madeline Leesman
Madeline Leesman  |  October 18, 2022 1:00 PM

District of Columbia Democratic Attorney General Karl Racine said he will investigate Republican governors who have sent thousands of migrants to the nation’s capital and other Democratic-led cities in recent months. 

The Texas Tribune and ProPublica co-published a piece on Thursday claiming that Racine’s office said that his office is “examining whether immigrants were deceived by trip organizers before boarding buses” bound to Dem-led cities: 

Racine’s investigation comes after weeks of escalating tensions between some Republican governors and the Biden administration over immigration policy. In April, Abbott began busing to Washington immigrants who had been processed and released by federal immigration officials, and he later expanded the initiative to New York and Chicago. To date, more than 12,000 immigrants have been relocated from border towns.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has followed Abbott’s lead and bused 2,170 immigrants to Washington on 60 buses, according to Ducey’s spokesperson, C.J. Karamargin. Most of them, he said, had said they hoped to relocate to New York, New Jersey or Florida.

As illegal immigrants began arriving in the so-called “sanctuary cities,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) began sending the migrants to towns outside the city without giving officials any warning. On the east coast, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said that the nation’s capital is not a border town and doesn’t have the “infrastructure” to handle the migrants. 

However, Townhall has covered that Republican lawmakers are not the only ones sending migrants via buses to liberal cities. 

In September, Julio covered how the Democrat-heavy area of El Paso began sending buses of migrants to New York City, following the lead of GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. 

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Since then, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has said that the migrants are overwhelming the so-called “sanctuary” city’s shelters and schools. In a press conference this month, Adams said that it will cost $1 billion to care for the migrants. Previously, he stated that he was considering legal action against the governors sending the migrants. 

And this week, the New York Post reported that the White House pressured the Democratic Mayor of El Paso, Texas to not declare a state of emergency over the city’s illegal immigration crisis over concerns that it would make President Biden “look bad.”

Reportedly, three of the El Paso City Council’s eight members have urged Mayor Oscar Leeser to issue a state of emergency declaration over the thousands of migrants flooding the city’s shelters and hotels. But, Leeser admitted during a private phone call last month that the Biden White House instructed him not to, an official told The Post. 

“He told me the White House asked him not to,” Councilmember Claudia Rodriguez told The Post. And, Leeser reportedly told Rodriguez he would declare a state of emergency only “if things got worse,” but did not specify what that would look like. 

United States Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose congressional district covers miles of rural areas and border towns near Mexico, told The Post he’s heard similar stories from other El Paso city officials. 

“It is a sleight of hand what the administration is doing — pressuring the local government to not issue a declaration of emergency, to say as if everything is going okay,” Gonzales said, adding that the White House has done “the same thing in other parts of my district.”

Leeser, who declined to be interviewed, said in a statement “I don’t bow to pressure from any side.” 

“I make decisions based on current circumstances and in the best interest of the citizens of El Paso,” he added, and then praised the Biden administration for providing “critical” assistance throughout the border crisis. Leeser did not acknowledge that the border crisis has escalated to record highs under the Biden administration.