(CNN) — Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued a request for aid from the DC National Guard to help with migrants entering the city by bus, according to a letter obtained by CNN affiliate WUSA.
The buses transporting the migrants originating in Texas and other states were sent to Washington starting in April. The mayor’s office says the city is now at a “tipping point.”
According to the office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, more than 5,100 migrants have arrived in Washington from Texas on more than 135 buses.
The city has facilitated the help of the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a $1 million grant, the mayor said at a news conference following a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.
However, city officials and non-government organizations have been increasingly concerned about the pace of arrivals over recent weeks.
The mayor’s office is requesting to convert the DC Armory, Joint Base Bolling, Fort McNair or other “suitable federal location in the National Capital Region” into a processing center for the migrants. The regional welcome center established to aid the migrants in Montgomery County, Maryland, is at capacity, according to the request.
Bowser called for a federal solution on Thursday.
“I’ve asked for the deployment of the Guard as long as we need the Guard to deal with the crisis that we expect to escalate,” Bowser said. “The number of people crossing the border seeking asylum we expect to only go up. And we need to make sure that there is a national response, not an ad-hoc, city by city, state by state response.”
Bowser also highlighted the differences in the situation in DC over other states. “We need to ask the President for the use of our National Guard, which we know can be very helpful in these logistical matters.”
CNN has reached out to the National Guard. A Defense Department spokesperson confirmed the request from Bowser in a statement to CNN.
“We can confirm that the secretary of defense received a request from the office of the Mayor of DC, but as this is a pending request, we are not prepared to comment on the specifics of the request at this time,” the spokesperson said. “The secretary takes this request for assistance very seriously. He and his team are working through the details, and will respond to the mayor’s office as soon as a decision has been reached.”
Bowser also criticized Abbott and other governors sending migrants to DC in her statement, saying they are “making a political statement to the federal government,” adding, “their actions are having direct impacts on city and regional resources in ways that are unsustainable.”
Abbott’s press secretary Renae Eze responded to the mayor in a statement to CNN.
“Washington, DC, finally understands what Texans have been dealing with every single day, as our communities are overrun and overwhelmed by thousands of illegal immigrants thanks to President Biden’s open border policies,” Eze said. “If the mayor wants a solution to this crisis, she should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border — something he has failed to do.”
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