WASHINGTON — Lever Alejos was penniless and out of options when he arrived in South Texas last month, after a 1,300-mile journey from Venezuela that ended with him crossing the Rio Grande in water up to his chin. Border Patrol quickly arrested him, and upon his release, he was offered a choice: a $50 bus ride to San Antonio or a free bus ride to Washington, D.C., paid for by the state of Texas.
“I wanted San Antonio, but I was out of money,” said Mr. Alejos, 28, who has no family in the United States. “I got on the bus to Washington.”
A few days later, he arrived in the country’s capital amid a busload of weary migrants. He spent the first night in the square across from Union Station, but eventually found a bed at the Central Union Mission, where he hopes to stay until he can apply for asylum, get a work permit and find a job, a process that could take months.
A political tactic by the governors of Texas and Arizona to relieve the problems caused by record levels of border migration is starting to hit home in Washington, as hundreds of undocumented migrants arriving on the governors’ free buses each week increasingly tax the capital opportunity to provide emergency food and housing.
With no money or family to take them in, migrants are overwhelming immigrant nonprofits and other volunteer groups, with many ending up in homeless shelters or on park benches. Five buses arrived recently, pouring young men and families with nowhere to go onto the streets near the Capitol.
Since April, Texas has delivered more than 6,200 migrants to the nation’s capital, with Arizona sending an additional 1,000 since May. The influx prompted Muriel E. Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, to ask the Defense Department to send in the National Guard. The request angered organizations that help migrants without support from the city.
Most of the recent bus passengers are Venezuelans fleeing the crisis-ridden country, and many also arrive in New York, often via Washington. Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor, announced emergency measures Monday to allow the city to quickly build additional shelter capacity. The mayor, also a Democrat, said the city has taken in 4,000 asylum seekers since May, leading to a 10 percent increase in the homeless population, with about 100 new arrivals each day.
Venezuelans show up daily at the offices of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York seeking help. “Their main concern was a place to stay, food for their children,” said Marianne Tarapel, who directs the organization’s immigrant and refugee services.
“The infrastructure in New York is not built for that,” she said. “We are not at the border.”
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas and Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona, both Republicans, have blamed President Biden for the record number of migrants crossing the southern border.
Border towns in Texas and Arizona have at times been overwhelmed by a surge in unauthorized border crossings that peaked under the Biden administration, which sought to lift some of the harsh border restrictions imposed by former President Donald J. Trump.
While thousands of migrants have been quickly deported under a pandemic-related health order known as Title 42, thousands more have been allowed into the country to file asylum claims because they cannot be returned to Mexico or their own countries .
State officials in Texas and Arizona have congratulated many of the migrants after their release from US Border Patrol custody, offering them free bus rides to Washington in an effort to force the federal government to take responsibility for what they say is a failed immigration system.
After reaching their destinations, migrants may remain in the country for months or even years while they pursue their deportation cases in court; are allowed to work while applying for asylum.
The situation has become acute in recent weeks with the arrival of so many Venezuelans who cannot be deported under Title 42 because Mexico will not accept them and their own government has no agreement with the United States to accept deportation flights. And unlike most migrants from Mexico and Central America who have family and friends in the United States, Venezuelans often arrive penniless and nowhere to go.
The Border Patrol encountered 110,467 Venezuelans along the southern border in the first nine months of this fiscal year, compared with 47,408 in all of fiscal 2021. In general, unresolved crossings have decreased with the onset of hot summer temperatures.
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The situation has led to a back-and-forth with Democratic mayors on the East Coast in recent weeks. In the latest salvo, on Monday, Mr Abbott sent a letter to the mayors, Mr Adams and Ms Bowser, inviting them to tour the “terrible situation” on the border with Mexico.
“Your recent interest in this historic and preventable crisis is welcome — especially since the president and his administration have shown no remorse for their actions, nor any willingness to address the situation themselves,” Mr. Abbott wrote.
Fabien Levy, a press secretary for the mayor of New York, issued the following statement: “Instead of a picture of the border, we hope that Governor Abbott will focus his energy and resources on providing support and resources to asylum seekers in Texas, as we have had a difficult work in New York.”
Texas’ governor and mayors agree on one thing: All three are calling on the federal government to act.
“The migrant crisis facing our city and our country through cruel political games by the governors of Texas and Arizona must be solved at the federal level,” Ms. Bowser wrote in a letter to White House officials.
In the request for a processing center at the D.C. Armory and activation of the National Guard, she said the number of migrants has reached a “tipping point” that has “crushed” the district’s ability to handle them.
Ms. Bower’s request drew rebuke from immigrant advocates, who said she ignored repeated requests for shelter space, a respite center and rapid coronavirus tests for migrants, among other things.
“The last thing we want is a militarized response to a humanitarian crisis,” said Andrea Scherf, lead organizer at the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, a coalition of grassroots groups.
Noting that Washington is a sanctuary city for immigrants, she said, “We need to meet the housing needs of everyone.”
The Biden administration said it had been in contact with Mayor Bowser, but Karin Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said the governors were using the migrants as a “political tool” for their own ends.
“A process has been put in place to manage migrants at the border. It’s not that,” she said, adding that the administration continues to deport some migrants, detain others and release those eligible for the care of local nonprofits “as they await processing.”
About 15 faith and community groups in Washington opened their doors to the migrants, offering them food, showers and hygiene items during daylight hours. But increasing the frequency of buses, from two to four a day to now sometimes eight, has depleted donations and exceeded capacity, and many volunteers have contracted Covid-19, Ms. Scherff said.
“The mayors are playing into the hands of Republican governors,” said Adam Isaacson, a scholar at the Washington Office on Latin America who studies the border.
“Of course they make a fuss about arriving migrants because those who need shelter are a strain on social services in their cities,” he said. But “the substance of their comments,” he said, gives governors ammunition to push for curbs on immigration, including measures like building border walls and ending asylum.
On a recent night, migrants disembarking from three buses were greeted by volunteers and staff from SAMU First Response, an international humanitarian organization that received some funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and began operating in Washington in late June.
They were given water, pizza and muesli and some were provided with onward travel tickets. By 1 a.m., most had settled in for the night on the marble floor of Union Station’s East Hall. Others, from earlier buses, were forced to sleep on the street. This created an unusual picture: homeless Americans on one side of the square; on the other, migrants with their meager possessions strewn across the ground—all within sight of the Capitol.
Tatyana Laborde, managing director of SAMU, said her organization has enough funds to buy tickets to other destinations for about a third of the migrants it provides services for. The group’s shelter in Montgomery County, Md., cannot provide long-term housing, she said.
Ten City Council members sent a letter to Washington’s mayor urging her not only to seek federal aid, but also to free up emergency funds and hire staff members to help migrants, as well as provide Covid testing, hotels for isolation and other resources.
“This is a crisis created by Republican leaders in other states, but unfortunately it has fallen on the mayor to allocate resources locally,” said Brian Nadeau, the council member who drafted the letter.
Many Venezuelans have said they traveled to the United States because they believed the country’s doors were open.
“On TikTok, we’ve seen people enter the United States easily,” said Jennifer Ortiz, who made the trip with her partner, Luis Moreno, and their 5-year-old daughter, Sofia.
Their trek to the United States took 45 days, including nine days crossing the dangerous jungle on the Colombia-Panama border known as the Darién Gap, Mr. Moreno said.
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