Migrants traveling from the border to Washington, D.C., have denied that they are being “tricked” into boarding the buses, according to a new report.
Several migrants spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation, contradicting claims that have been made by the mayors of D.C. and New York City.
In July, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the illegal migrants appearing in shelters were asylum seekers “tricked” into getting on buses traveling to D.C.
“I fear that they’re being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America,” she said during a “Face the Nation” interview.
She has criticized Republican Governors Doug Ducey of Arizona and Greg Abbott of Texas for sending buses full of migrants to the nation’s capital.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has repeated Bowser’s claims, stressing the pressure extra people puts on the city.
The DCNF spoke with several illegal migrants who arrived in Washington on Friday from Arizona. They were waiting for a bus heading to New York Tuesday morning.
One man from Venezuela who was traveling with his wife and their three children said “They helped me and collaborated so that I could get from all the way to Washington. They took me to a shelter in which they treated me very well and they offered me the ticket from here to New York.”
“No. They offer it to us. They offer it to us for free to help those of us who don’t have [money] for free,” said the man’s wife.
“If you want, what they do is they forward us all the way to Washington, and, from here, we look for the organizations that help us so that we can get to our destination. Because at least for us that foundation gave us the tickets,” she explained to the DCNF.
A migrant from the Dominican Republic, traveling with her 12-year-old son, said she knew where the bus was going and voluntarily got on it. “[We’re going] to New York, where they will give us housing,” she said.
Republican governors along the border have been looking for ways to alleviate the burden that illegal migrants have put on their cities as border crossings increase.