With some of those people sleeping outside or at Union Station as volunteers scramble to find them food, clothing and temporary shelter, neither the city nor the federal government has been willing to play a direct role in addressing what immigrant advocates say is a building humanitarian crisis.
City officials have been encouraging nonprofit groups to seek additional federal aid, rather than funding from the D.C. government, after the Department of Defense last week denied Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s request for the National Guard to take command of a more centralized form of assistance to the migrants.
Bowser (D), who has not devoted local government resources to the matter, said last week that she plans to renew her request for National Guard assistance. Guard officials “appear to say a more specified request would help them understand our needs,” Bowser said Friday. The Defense Department declined to comment Tuesday on Bowser’s plan to renew her request.
Immigrant advocates, who were against deploying the National Guard over concerns it would be militarizing the issue, argue the problem requires a coordinated local government response.
“The mayor is sitting on millions of dollars within the D.C. budget,” said Ashley Tjhung, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, a collection of mostly volunteer groups that have been greeting the migrants as they arrive and giving them rides to nearby hotels or churches that have served as temporary lodging.
So far, more than 7,000 migrants have arrived, according to estimates provided by the volunteers. Though many have left for other parts of the country, an increasing number have chosen to settle in the area, making their presence a longer-term challenge, Tjhung said.
“Services need to be expanded to help people find housing, to help people enroll their children in schools, to provide legal services so they can successfully seek asylum here,” she said, arguing that the District would could more easily secure aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The aid available to the migrants is increasingly stretched thin.
A 50-person “respite center” in Montgomery County that is meant to provide temporary shelter and other assistance to the migrants is often full, leaving the aid groups to search for alternative lodging. Scott Peterson, spokesman for Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D), said the county is “committed to supporting the regional effort to assist these new arrivals” but is running out of resources.
“Montgomery County has been assisting the migrants since they have arrived but we are nearing capacity with the resources we are currently providing to these individuals,” Peterson said. “It is unfortunate that these migrants are being used as political pawns by the Governors of Texas and Arizona. Furthermore, immigration and interstate issues are a responsibility of the federal government. We hope the federal government will intervene, assist, and work with us to handle this unprecedented situation.”
FEMA has given a $1 million grant to SAMU First Response, a Spain-based group, for its aid to the migrants. Tatiana Laborde, operations director for the organization, said it has not been able to find a suitable building closer to Union Station that would make assisting the migrants easier.
The neighborhood surrounding the station is one of the city’s priciest real estate markets and is home to federal government buildings already in use, Laborde said.
Available buildings that are affordable don’t have the amenities required under the FEMA grant to temporarily house the…
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