Texas sends THIRD convoy of migrants to Kamala Harris’ DC home – as shelters in state overflow

A third convoy of migrants has been sent to Kamala Harris‘ Washington DC home, after she claimed the end of Title 42 was ‘going rather smoothly’.

Despite what she told a Georgia reporter, there have been troubles with the transition to the new policy, with video showing a migrant facility packed to six times it’s capacity Sunday.

On Sunday, another busload of migrants were sent to the Naval Observatory next to the vice president’s residence by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, which he’d previously done earlier this week and on last Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, back in the Lone Star State, video showed wild overcrowding at the Central Processing Center in El Paso.

Footage showed men stuffed into small rooms – with capacities of 120 but trying to hold 750 – together at the facility.

Officials said that the building’s max capacity is at around 1,000 but that they were filled with about 6,000 people, according to Fox News.

Another reporter showed the absurdity of the situation, with a Venezuelan migrant holding papers showing he’d have his day in immigration court in April of 2027.

The need to shape up at the border was made even more clear this weekend, as an Afghan national on the FBI’s terror watch list was arrested for trying to sneak in with a group of migrants.

This despite Border Patrol agents saying they have seen a 50 percent drop in the number of migrants crossing from Mexico into the U.S. since Title 42 expired at midnight Thursday, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Meanwhile, the vice president spent her weekend in the wealthy Atlanta suburb of Buckhead at a fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Georgia, the third time she’s visited the swing state this year.

The state’s Republican Party called it ‘deplorable’ Harris was ‘coming to Atlanta for a fundraiser campaigning while the border crisis is overflowing and we have out-of-control inflation’ in a statement.

Responding to that criticism, Harris said everything she’s heard from the border crisis is apparently fine.

‘I hear that everything in the last couple of a days is going rather smoothly given what the concerns were,’ Harris said.

She then doubled down on Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ choice to blame Congress. 

‘The issue of immigration falls squarely within the responsibility of the United States Congress. We’ve done what we can but the Congress must pass legislation,’ she added.  

The chair of the Georgia Democratic Party wouldn’t tell WSB-TV the exact amount Harris raised, only saying ‘it was a lot.’ 

The end of Title 42 has led to overcrowding at the Border Patrol’s Central Processing Facility in El Paso, with Fox News reporting that that the building, with a capacity of 1,000, had over 6,000 jammed inside.   

Over the course of Thursday and Friday, at least 70 migrants were dropped off on Harris‘s doorstep in Washington DC in the last 24 hours, as the governor of Texas continues his policy of bussing migrants from his state to Democrat-run cities.

Greg Abbott, the governor, has sent at least 17,000 migrants from Texas to DC, New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia since April 2022. Over 9,200 have been sent to DC, and Abbott at the weekend defended the move, saying it was designed to share the burden.

‘The reason why we are bussing migrants across the country is because small little towns on the border like Del Rio and Eagle Pass, they have no capacity to deal with the number of people coming across the border,’ he told Fox News.

‘And we have to relieve the congestion at small communities and bus them to larger communities.’

Video on Thursday evening showed around 30 migrants disembarking from buses parked outside the Naval Observatory, where Harris lives with her husband Doug Emhoff. The clip was filmed shortly before Title 42 border rules were lifted – a move which many expect will spark a surge in migrants attempting to cross. 

It was unclear whether she was at home: earlier on Thursday she attended an event at the National Museum of Asian Art in DC.

On Wednesday, a bus carrying 40 migrants arrived at her gates.

The mainly Venezuelan men, women and children were received by the organization SAMU First Response and Mutual Aid, which was set to provide them emergency shelter and an orientation on possible next steps.

It’s the second time busloads of migrants have been dispatched to the VP’s home after Abbott transported arrivals from the southern border to same address last year.  

DC’s temporary lodging program has reached capacity, with there being no more space as of last week, according to the District’s Department of Human Services, with 1,249 migrants from 370 families spread across three area hotels.

The pressure on the system – with 10,000 migrants arriving a day at the U.S.-Mexico border – comes as the pandemic-era border restrictions, Title 42, are lifted.

Under Title 42, migrants could be immediately expelled back to Mexico or their home country.

The Biden administration argued that all pandemic-era policies should be lifted, and at midnight Eastern Time on Thursday, Title 42 was revoked.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz was in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday evening to take a look at the border crisis for himself.

Cruz appeared furious as he was surrounded by members of the Border Patrol and the Texas National Guard’, accusing the Biden administration of ‘deliberately’ creating the situation.

‘We are witnessing an absolute travesty unfolding on our southern border,’ Cruz began in a four minute rant.

‘On Monday we apprehended over 10,000 people on the border – the highest level in history. 

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‘On Tuesday we apprehended over 10,000 people on the border again the highest level in history. 

‘There are right now, where we’re standing, more than 22,000 people camped just south of the border, getting ready to come across,’ Cruz explained.

‘Just in this location, in less than a month, we’ve had over 35,000 Venezuelans cross illegally just right here.’

Joe Biden admitted that there would likely be chaos at first, and his Homeland Security Secretary warned migrants not to believe the ‘lies of people smugglers’, insisting that the border was not open.

Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said this week that his officials reported people traffickers telling migrants that the border was being opened to all.

‘We have 24,000 Border Patrol Agents and Officers at the Southwest Border and have surged thousands of troops and contractors, and over a thousand asylum officers to help enforce our laws,’ said Mayorkas on Thursday. 

‘Do not believe the lies of smugglers. The border is not open.’

Mayorkas and the Biden administration have faced an avalanche of criticism for the scenes at the border, as thousands of migrants gather in the hope of entering the U.S. now the restrictions have ended.

Mayorkas on Thursday tried to tell those aiming to cross that it was a bad move.

‘Starting tonight, people who arrive at the border without using a lawful pathway will be presumed ineligible for asylum,’ he tweeted. 

‘We are ready to humanely process and remove people without a legal basis to remain in the U.S. 

‘People who do not use available lawful pathways to enter the U.S. now face tougher consequences, including a minimum five-year ban on re-entry and potential criminal prosecution. 

‘Together with our partners throughout the federal government and Western Hemisphere, we are prepared for this transition.’

The expiring rules have been in place since March 2020. 

They allowed border officials to quickly return asylum seekers back over the border on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

U.S. authorities have unveiled strict new measures to replace Title 42, which crack down on illegal crossings while also setting up legal pathways for migrants who apply online, seek a sponsor and undergo background checks. 

If successful, the reforms could fundamentally alter how migrants arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Pandemic-era limits on asylum known as Title 42 have been rarely discussed among many of tens of thousands of migrants massed on Mexico’s border with the United States.

Their eyes were – and are – fixed instead on a new U.S. government mobile app that grants 1,000 people daily an appointment to cross the border and seek asylum while living in the U.S. 

With demand far outstripping available slots, the app has been an exercise in frustration for many – and a test of the Biden administration’s strategy of coupling new legal paths to entry with severe consequences for those who don’t follow them.

‘You start to give up hope but it’s the only way,’ said Teresa Muñoz, 48, who abandoned her home in the Mexican state of Michoacan after a gang killed her husband and beat her. 

She has been trying for a month to gain entry through the app, called CBPOne, while staying in a Tijuana shelter with her two children and 2-year-old grandson.

Meanwhile, in New York City, the historic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan shuttered three years ago, but it will soon be bustling again – reopening to accommodate an anticipated influx of asylum seekers just as other New York City hotels are being converted to emergency shelters.

Mayor Eric Adams announced Saturday that the city will use the Roosevelt to eventually provide as many as 1,000 rooms for migrants who are expected to arrive in coming weeks.

Across the city, hotels like the Roosevelt that served tourists just a few years ago are being transformed into emergency shelters, many of them in prime locations within walking distance from Times Square, the World Trade Center memorial site and the Empire State Building. 

A legal mandate requires the city to provide shelter to anyone who needs it.

Even so, Adams says the city is running out of room for migrants and has sought financial help from the state and federal governments.

‘New York City has now cared for more than 65,000 asylum seekers – already opening up over 140 emergency shelters and eight large-scale humanitarian relief centers in addition to this one to manage this national crisis,’ the mayor said in a statement announcing the Roosevelt decision.

The storied hotel near Grand Central Terminal served as election headquarters for New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, who in 1948 was said to have wrongly announced from the Roosevelt that he had defeated Harry Truman for president.

As the city faces growing pressure to expand its shelter system, it is turning to vacant hotels for those who need a roof and a place to bunk down as they sort out their lives. 

One of them is the Holiday Inn, located in Manhattan´s Financial District. A few months ago, signs in the lobby windows of the 50-story, 500-room hotel said it was closed.

Scott Markowitz of Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, attorneys for the hotel´s owner, said reopening as a city-sponsored shelter made financial sense.

‘They rent out every room at the hotel at a certain price every night,’ Markowitz said, adding that it is bringing ‘substantially more revenue’ than normal operations would have brought in.

It´s not new for the city to turn to hotels for New Yorkers without homes when shelters and other options weren´t available.

During the pandemic, group shelters made it difficult to comply with social distancing rules, prompting the city to rent out hundreds of hotel rooms as quasi COVID wards. As the pandemic eased, the city became less reliant on hotels.