Department of Defense denies DC mayor's request for migrant assistance

WASHINGTON — The states of Arizona and Texas continue to send asylum seekers to the District as the school year approaches for children.

More than 8,700 asylum seekers have been sent to D.C. from both states since April. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office said his state has sent about 7,200 migrants on 175 buses to D.C. so far. While Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's office said 1,516 migrants have gotten on 41 buses to go to the District.

About 1,300 migrants have been bused to D.C. from those states over the last month.

Many of the buses that have rolled into Union Station have included children. Neither state could provide data on just how many of the bus passengers were below the age of 18.

Either way, it appears those young asylum seekers will be welcome in DC Public Schools this fall after DC Mayor Muriel Bowser answered a reporter's question at a Monday press conference about what the District would do about school-aged children.

"School-aged children will go to school," she said. "That's the plan."

Many of the kids who have been bused to D.C. have come with very little, according to Madhvi Bahl, a migrant organizer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network and Sanctuary DMV. She said efforts are ongoing to collect supplies for them for the upcoming school year.

"Everything has to be found and provided," she said. "We're definitely working on that and hope to get everything ready for them as school starts, basically."

However, Bahl was critical of Bowser's decision to speak publicly about the matter now just a week before the start of DCPS' school year.

"Like, she's only welcoming them now," Bahl said. "This was a big fight to get kids to be welcomed into the schools."

WUSA9 has reached out to DCPS for more specificity on how the school district plans to welcome students who are bused from the border to the area.

Some Maryland school districts say they approach the situation as they have in the past with any other student who arrives in the country.

Prince George's County Public Schools Communications Director Meghan Gebreselassie said PGCPS already has the largest percentage of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students in the state. She added more than 40 percent of PGCPS students are either immigrants or children of immigrants.

"Our International Student Admissions and Enrollment Office has extensive experience in registering large numbers of immigrant students and our school system has a long history of providing educational services to immigrant and refugee students," Gebreselassie said.

Montgomery County Public Schools said there will be no change in its protocol either as to how it accepts immigrant children.

"We take all students," said MCPS Communications Director Chris Cram. "It doesn't matter where they come from."

He pointed out MCPS already received 864 international students from all parts of the world in July and August.

While some city and school leaders seem to agree on what to do with the children who are bused to the D.C. region this fall, the question of how to best help migrants who arrive here remains open.

On Monday, the Department of Defense confirmed it had turned down DC Mayor Muriel Bowser's latest request for National Guard assistance to help migrants. Bowser had made a similar request for assistance in late July.

The Department of Defense said that the DC Armory was not properly equipped to temporarily house arriving migrants and that the DC National Guard did not have the necessary training to feed and support them either.

Bahl, and other local groups helping migrants, agreed with the federal government's decision. They maintain D.C. government needs to take a more central role in assisting asylum seekers bused to the city from Arizona and Texas.

"We don't believe in the militarization of humanitarian aid," she said. "We don't think they have a role in this process and we're just happy that the request was denied again."

Bowser reiterated her belief that the federal government should help D.C. just before the denial of her assistance request became public.

"Right now, we're dealing with a politically motivated, policy emergency and we think it can be a crisis in our city," she said. "That's why we've asked for federal support and we will continue to do that. We think that cities alone can't solve a broken immigration system."

If you would like to assist Sanctuary DMV in its efforts to help migrant children and their families being bused to the District, you can find out more information on how to do so on the group's social media accounts.