The Venezuelan immigrant José Alejandro Rivero and his family group arrived this Wednesday at one of the doors of the Unión Station station, in Washington DC, after a 30-hour journey by bus from Del Río, Texas.
“We crossed the Rio Grande and it was somewhat difficult, but the government got this bus to bring us here,” Rivero told a local news outlet, apparently unaware of the political motivation behind the transfer that began Monday at the southern border until today. to the national capital.
The Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, fulfills with this first shipment his word to send immigrants to Washington undocumented immigrants arriving in Texas to ask for asylum. The highest authority of the border state has said that it would send up to 900 buses with immigrants, according to national media reports.
His decision -he has said- is in rejection of the guidelines of the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden on the immigration issue, especially regarding the end of Title 42 scheduled for May 23.
Regarding the arrival of immigrants to the national capital, the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said at a press conference on Wednesday that all those sent on the bus by the governor of Texas, “are in immigration processes, which it means they are in contact with the appropriate federal government entities about their cases.”
The spokeswoman stressed that “nobody can be forced onto a bus” when they have an open process before the authorities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which would mean that they have the right to opt for this measure only by “voluntarily getting on a bus.” a bus” when it is in line with a personal decision.
Psaki reiterated that “immigration law and policy are overseen by the federal government and not by the state government,” as mandated by law.
Humanitarian assistance in the capital
The arrival of the bus loaded with asylum seekers from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Colombia, as reported by the chain Fox News, took pro-immigrant organizations in the capital by surprise. But the Catholic Charities service was ready to the site near the Capitol to offer assistance.
Nun Charlotte Wagner of Catholic Charities told CNN that the assistance consists of advice and basic support since many do not have Washington DC as their destination but other cities far from the national capital, so they were looking for logistics for this mobilization to where they can have support from their families.
“They are tired, they are hungry. They need clothes, a shower. They ask for a change of clothes,” the nun told the television network.
When the dozens of immigrants arrived in Washington, they took off the yellow armbands that they use in the reception centers, but they keep the envelopes with the documentation for the asylum application process that they will have to follow before the immigration judges.
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