Status: 08/27/2022 6:50 p.m
The southern US states of Texas and Arizona are putting migrants on buses bound for Washington. There, they argue, the US government should take care of it. Some migrants are fine with that.
Around 80 migrants are sitting at tables and on benches in the basement of the Methodist Church in Washington’s Capitol Hill district. Some have stretched out on the floor and are dozing. It’s stuffy, the air smells of unwashed clothes and chicken and rice in big pots on a table.
On a stage at the head of the room there are boxes with clothes, diapers and toiletries, and volunteers distribute the things. The people were brought here from Texas in two buses in the morning.
Without the churches and without volunteers, they would be stranded helplessly in Washington: newly arrived migrants from Central and South America
Image: REUTERS
hope for a better future
Among them is Alexander Rafael Colmenares. He fled his native Colombia and says how armed gangs are causing major problems in his country – which is why he “gave everything” to “search for a better future for me and my family”.
The 30-year-old stares into the room with tired brown eyes. Apart from the clothes he wears, he hardly has anything with him. The border officials took away his mobile phone.
Colmenares was on the road for a month and a half, crossing six countries. Most of the time he walked, only sometimes took the bus. When he arrived in Texas, he was offered a free seat on the bus to Washington. He was happy to accept it – it calmed him down to get away from the border by bus, he says, and now everything is “much better”.
Free tickets – with calculation
In fact, Colmenares ended up in Washington because two men don’t want the refugees in their states: Republican governors of Texas and Arizona, Greg Abbott and Ducey. Since the spring they have been offering migrants at the Mexican border free tickets to Washington, and since the beginning of August – at least the Texan Abbott – also to New York.
With the bus action they protest against the immigration policy of the democratic US government. Greg Abbott said on US television that in the United States capital the Biden government could “immediately attend to the needs of the people whom it has allowed to cross our border”.
Hope triggers more migration
In fact, not much has changed in immigration policy since the Democrats took office in 2021. But the mere announcement of relief has prompted thousands of people from South and Central America to make their way to the United States. Already, more immigrants have crossed the southern border than in the entire last US fiscal year.
In Washington alone, 7,000 migrants have arrived in buses from the border since April. Muriel Bowser, Mayor of the capital, has asked the US government twice in the past few weeks for help from the National Guard to avert a “humanitarian crisis”, as she wrote in her request for help. That was rejected.
Return travel to Texas or Arizona not desired: migrants after arrival in Washington DC
Image: REUTERS
Nothing works without volunteers
So only the volunteers remain – a meanwhile huge network that takes care of the arriving people. And that largely without state support, says the pastor Stephanie Vader, in whose parish the refugees were allowed to come that day. State – and better coordinated – support would be very helpful. Although the “Mutual Aid” network spent more than $300,000, it was all donations. And yet there are still many unmet needs.
Nine out of ten refugees do not stay in Washington but travel on. Colmenares also received a bus ticket from the Volunteer Network to visit his brother in Tennessee. There he hopes to be able to work at some point, to find peace – and to be able to stay.