Local Organizers Say Bowser Administration Is Failing Migrants Being Bused To D.C.
Amanda Michelle Gomez
At a church in D.C., mutual aid volunteers and nonprofit staff serve lunch to migrants after arriving by a bus from an immigration center in Texas.
Dee Dwyer / DCist/WAMU
Ruth and Ronald heard rumors when they arrived at the Texas-Mexico border that people in D.C. were offering free help to migrants like them. The couple from Venezuela, who declined to give their full names so as to not jeopardize their asylum application, were relieved to learn the rumors were true.
When they arrived at Union Station on Friday, the pair and their four kids say they were greeted by local volunteers and nonprofit staff, who offered food and other support. A volunteer purchased their flight to Florida, where they plan on meeting Ruth’s cousins — then she offered up her home to the family for the night, sheltering and breaking bread with them as they waited for their flight on Saturday evening.
Their experience in D.C. was night and day with Texas. “It was tougher because in the border there are military, so they treat you like military,” Ronald tells DCist/WAMU at a church downtown that’s become a base of operations for volunteers helping the migrants.
https://dcist.com/story/22/07/27/nonprofits-aid-migrants-bused-dc-bowser-administration/
