Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected the request because the Defense Department “determined that providing this support would negatively impact the readiness of the DCNG and have negative effects on the organization and members,” the official said.
The official said grant funding through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program is sufficient. “We understand that SAMU First Response has received grant funding through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program and has indicated that sufficient EFSP funds exist at this time to provide assistance to migrants.”
Bowser told reporters on Friday: “I had a chance to scan that letter and what I see is that we may be sending an amended request.”
“The Ministry of Defense has highlighted a number of – concerns about the open-ended nature of our request and their ability to respond to it. So I want to give them some more specific parameters so they can better respond to our request,” she continued.
CNN earlier reported that according to the office of Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, more than 5,100 migrants arrived in Washington from Texas on more than 135 buses.
The city facilitated help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a $1 million grant, the mayor said at a press conference last week.
However, city officials and NGOs have grown increasingly concerned about the pace of arrivals in recent weeks. The mayor’s office asked to convert the D.C. weapons base, Joint Base Bolling, Fort McNair or another “appropriate federal site in the National Capital Region” into a migrant processing center. The regional welcome center set up to assist migrants in Montgomery County, Maryland, is at full capacity, according to the request.
“I asked for the Guard to be deployed until we need the Guard to deal with a crisis that we expect to escalate,” Bowser said last week. “The number of people crossing the border, seeking asylum, we expect to only grow. And we need to make sure there’s a national response, not an ad hoc, city-by-city, state-by-state response.”
Bowser also highlighted the differences in the situation in DC compared to 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,” she said at the time.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Sonnet Swire and Colin McCullough contributed to this report.
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