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The Pentagon has rejected Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for National Guard assistance for help with migrants entering the city by busaccording to a US defense official.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected the request because the Defense Department “has determined that providing such support would adversely affect the readiness of the DCNG and have negative effects on the organization and members,” the official said.
The official said grant funding through FEMA’s emergency food and shelter program is sufficient. “We understand that SAMU First Response has received grants through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program and has indicated that there are sufficient EFSP funds at this time to provide assistance to migrants.”
Bowser told reporters Friday that he wants to continue working with the Pentagon to make sure that political considerations “are not part of his decision.”
The Democrat, who has served as the district’s mayor under US presidents of both parties, alluded to the use of the National Guard during the January 6, 2021 uprising at the US Capitol: ” “Having the experience of using the National Guard in D.C. was politicized, that puts the District in unsafe territory,” he told reporters Friday.
“We want to continue to work with the Department of Defense so that they understand our operational needs and ensure that any political considerations are not part of their decision,” he added.
In a letter from the Defense Department, Bowser said the Pentagon highlighted “concerns about the open-ended nature of our request and their ability to respond to it.”
“So after looking at their letter, they seem to be saying that a more specific request would help them understand our needs,” Bowser added.
According to the office of Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, more than 6,500 migrants have arrived in Washington from Texas on more than 160 buses.
The city has facilitated help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a $1 million grant, the mayor said at a news conference last week.
However, municipal officials and non-governmental organizations have grown increasingly concerned about the pace of arrivals in recent weeks. The mayor’s office requested to turn the DC Armory, Joint Base Bolling, Fort McNair or another “appropriate federal location in the National Capital Region” into a processing center for migrants. The regional welcome center established to help migrants in Montgomery County, Maryland, is at capacity, according to the request.
“I have called for the deployment of the Guard whenever we need the Guard to deal with the crisis that we expect to escalate,” Bowser said last week. “We expect the number of people crossing the border seeking asylum to only increase. And we need to make sure there’s a national response, not an ad-hoc, city-by-city, state-by-state response.”
Bowser also highlighted the differences in the situation in DC compared to other states.
“We need to ask the president for the use of our National Guard, which we know can be very helpful in these logistical matters,” he said at the time.
This story has been updated with additional details.
