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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused GOP governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida of behaving like “smugglers” and misleading migrants transported this week to Democratic-leaning jurisdictions — after the White House defended its own midnight migrant flights in recent months.
“These vulnerable migrants were reportedly misled about where they were headed, told they would be headed to Boston, misled about what they would be provided when they arrived, promised shelter, refuge, benefits, and more,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday.
“These are the kinds of tactics we see from smugglers in places like Mexico and Guatemala,” she added.
DeSantis flew about 50 mostly Venezuelan migrants late Wednesday to the elite vacation destination of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, while Abbott on Thursday delivered 101 bussed-in migrants to the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden’s migration czar.
Jean-Pierre claimed that migrants sent to DC were “abandoned” on a “busy road” — despite the fact that there are many sidewalks on that stretch of Massachusetts Avenue outside the veep’s official residence at the Naval Observatory. Photos showed that the migrants were loaded into city-sponsored vans shortly after the buses dropped them off.
“Yesterday, two Republican governors reportedly lured more than 100 asylum seekers, including children, onto planes and buses with false premises and then abandoned them on the side of a busy road thousands of miles away with nothing — with nothing but Ziploc bags of their belongings in hand,” Jean-Pierre said.
“These were children. They were moms. They were fleeing communism.
