Migrants bused to DC from Texas, Arizona has waned

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — D.C. officials have begun to phase down its migrant services five months after of buses from Texas and Arizona stopped bringing them to D.C.

At one point, it was starting to overwhelm the city.

There are just over 600 migrants housed in two hotels in the District and a third hotel in Northeast D.C. – the Days Inn – which is closing down for migrant use on Friday, officials said.

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More than 13,000 migrants were sent to the District by the governors of Texas and Arizona on buses – and even some dropped off in front of the gates of the vice president’s home – beginning in April of 2022 in protest of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

One of the migrants who ended up coming to the District is Andrea Sanchez along with her husband and two children. They lived in the Days Inn for 10 months before transitioning to Maryland last year.

“It’s not easy being an immigrant in this country,” said Sanchez, who came to the D.C. from Venezuela. “But my experience has been good so far. I don’t have anything bad to say or any complaints.

“D.C. has supported us a lot, and in my case, it’s been good,” she added.

District officials said they estimate that the city paid $59 million since 2022 to house and feed migrants in the three hotels with stays for up to a year.

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The closing of the Days Inn for migrants is a signal that the Mayor Muriel Bowser administration is phasing out services for them. Officials said they are no longer accepting any new migrants to live in one of the hotels they are subsidizing with District dollars.

“We thought it was important. We stepped up and tried to be helpful to them,” said City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.

But Mendelson said the effort has been costly to District taxpayers.

“Somewhere around 8 to $10 million a month,” he said. “But on the other hand, these are human beings and the city tries to be a welcoming place.”

Mendelson said he’s not been happy with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending thousands of migrants to D.C. to protest a federal immigration policy. But he’s pleased that buses have ceased dropping migrants off in D.C.

“If that has slowed down or even stopped, that’s great for the migrants because they shouldn’t just be put on buses and shipped to different cities,” he said.

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Sanchez said her experience in the District has been helpful for her transition to American life.

“They gave me tools for me to be able to sign my kids up for school,” she said. “They supported us with food.”

Sanchez said with services dwindling, some migrants might be afraid to come.

“People are not considering coming to a place where they won’t offer them help,” she said.

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