A network of organizations with few resources, and a nonprofit with a federal grant have been scrambling to help migrants, while the number of buses rises.
The buses have been arriving from Texas and Arizona for months, after the Republican governors of those states started offering “voluntary” bus trips to the nation’s capital for migrants caught crossing the border from Mexico.
That patchwork of aid fell short Tuesday night, after core organizers and volunteers with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network advocates were in quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus while helping migrants over the weekend. SAMU First Response, an international aid organization that has a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to help the migrants, only operates Wednesday through Saturday.
SAMU has been operating at a shelter located in Montgomery County, Md., where Laborde said they prioritize migrant families from Arizona who often arrive with children. The shelter only has capacity for 50 people who are allowed to stay no more than three days. On Wednesday morning, Laborde said, the shelter was already full.
Nadeau, who is a chairwoman for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, said local leaders who are part of the group will convene next week to determine exactly what officials and nonprofits, including SAMU, can do to increase support for those arriving in the city. They said the place they had secured in Richmond is no longer available. Now they are seeking shelter or a home to stay in D.C.
“I don’t have anybody here, but I have the will to work,” said León, who worked as a sous-chef in Venezuela.
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