White House condemns Texas governor after migrants were dropped off outside Kamala Harris' house: 'Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures'
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- The White House slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after busloads of migrants arrived in Washington, DC.
- Busloads of migrants arrived on Christmas Eve outside of Vice President Kamala Harris' home.
- The move comes as the future of an immigration policy known as Title 42 remains uncertain.
The White House condemned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after busloads of migrants were reportedly dropped off outside of Vice President Kamala Harris' official residence in Washington, DC, on one of the coldest Christmas Eve days on record in the nation's capital.
"Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities," White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in a statement. "This was a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt."
Democrats have blamed the situation on Abbott, who has since April bused migrants from Texas to major Democratic-led cities, including Washington, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, to protest the Biden administration's immigration policies.
"As we have repeatedly said, we are willing to work with anyone – Republican or Democrat alike – on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office," Hasan added, "but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger."
In the latest move, three buses filled with more than 100 migrants arrived from Texas on December 24 to the Naval Observatory, where Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff live, according to multiple news reports.
A mutual-aid group, which has for months been welcoming these migrants, said the buses were sent by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, per The New York Times. Volunteers coordinated transportation, temporary housing and food for the migrants.
"It really does show the cruelty behind Gov. Abbott and his insistence on continuing to bus people here without care about people arriving late at night on Christmas Eve when the weather is so cold," Amy Fischer, an organizer at the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, told local news outlet WJLA. "People are getting off the buses, they don't have coats, they don't have clothes for this kind of weather, and they're freezing."
Abbott has not claimed responsibility over the latest arrivals of migrants in the District, and his office did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Monday.
The Texas governor has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden's response to the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border and called for federal support to address the border crossings. Abbott previously sent migrants to Harris' home in September to pressure the administration to take further action.
"Texas will continue sending migrants to sanctuary cities like Washington, D.C. until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their jobs to secure the border," Abbott said in a statement at the time.
The Lone Star State has bused more than 8,700 migrants to the nation's capital since the spring, according to a statement from the governor's office released last week.
In a letter to the president on December 20, Abbott urged Biden to "secure the southern border" as the future of a controversial Trump-era immigration policy that allowed the US to turn away asylum seekers at the border out of public health concerns remains uncertain.
The Title 42 policy, enacted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, was set to end last week but the Supreme Court has temporarily kept it in place. Abbott and other Republican governors have urged the courts to maintain the policy, saying that its expiration would result in an increase in migrants at the border and exacerbate the problem.
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