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Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser will not say who is tricking illegal immigrants in Texas and Arizona to hop on buses traveling to the nation’s capital.
Bowser claimed in a Sunday interview that the illegal migrants putting strain on the homeless shelters in the nation’s capital were asylum seekers who were “tricked” into getting on buses traveling to D.C.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bowser’s office asking if she could point to the person or persons tricking the migrants to travel cross-country to her city.
The D.C. mayor was also asked if the strain on her city has changed her perspective on the southern border currently in a compounding crisis.
Bowser’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions.
“Well, this is a very significant issue. We have for sure called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses,” Bowser claimed on Sunday during a “Face the Nation” interview.
“We think they’re largely asylum seekers who are going to final destinations that are not Washington, D.C. I worked with the White House to make sure that FEMA provided a grant to a local organization that is providing services to folks,” she continued. “I fear that they’re being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America.”
Bowser was also questioned on whether taxpayers on the local and national level would be covering the cost of the migrants in the homeless shelters. The mayor claimed that would not be the case.
“Local taxpayers are not picking up the tab. They should not pick up the tab,” Bowser said. “We really need a coordinated federal response. We know that it’s done for refugees who come to the states from all points of the world and the same has to be done in the situation.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been busing the illegal migrants to D.C. since May, bringing the southern border crisis affecting the Lone Star State and beyond to Bowser’s backyard.
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The buses into D.C. came after multiple border communities lodged complaints about the crisis that continues to grow under the Biden administration’s inaction.
22 House Republicans demanded answers last Friday from the Biden administration after reports suggested the federal government had been transporting illegal immigrants throughout the country to receive abortions.
Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick contributed reporting.