DC Mayor begs for National Guard help with migrant crisis after Pentagon denial

Bowser wrote to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday to ask for help with the thousands of new arrivals to the city, begging for military support "to help prevent a prolonged humanitarian crisis in our nation’s capital resulting from the daily arrival of migrants in need of assistance."

"We need help from our federal partners as we seek to stabilize and manage our operating environment in this critical moment," she wrote.

The progressive mayor also revealed that she has requested that the Biden administration give migrants similar treatment to refugees of war.

"We, likewise, encourage the federal government, as I have expressed to White House officials, to help asylum seekers in ways similar to systems set up for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees," she said.

When she first begged for help on July 19, Bowser claimed that more than 4,000 migrants had arrived after being sent out on buses from overwhelmed border states.

Fed-up officials in Arizona and Texas have been bussing border-crossers to liberal "sanctuary cities" across the country, in order to offset some of the load they've had to bear in the current migrant crisis. In just a 10-week span earlier this spring, over half a million migrants crossed the southern border into the US.

According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, migrants consented to being transported to sanctuary cities such as New York City and Washington, DC. He has said that until the Biden administration strengthens its border policy, he will not stop shipping illegal border-crossers out of his state.

Bowser asked that the Pentagon send guards by Monday to help for at least 90 days, claiming that most of the arriving migrants only stay in DC for 72 hours "before moving to their final destination." The final destinations of these migrants were not specified.

Specifically, the mayor wants the guards to cover "urgent staffing and logistical challenges" by helping with "facility management, feeding, sanitation and ground support."

In addition, she also asked that "the DC Armory or another federal site to serve as a respite center."

The National Guard was called into DC after the January 6 riot at the Capitol, and stayed in town until May.