Gov. Newsom calls for investigation into Republican governors busing migrants north
SACRAMENTO -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called for an investigation into Republican governors sending busloads of migrants to Democratic states to protest the Biden administration's immigration policies.
In the Thursday afternoon Twitter post, Newsom specifically called out Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott over their "cruel" policy of busing migrants out of their states to cities with Democratic mayors as part of a political strategy.
What @GovRonDeSantis and @GregAbbott_TX are doing isn’t clever, it’s cruel.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 15, 2022
I’m formally requesting the DOJ begin an immediate investigation into these inhumane efforts to use kids as political pawns. pic.twitter.com/x2sBa06nSw
Abbot has claimed there are too many arrivals over the border to his state. DeSantis also got in on the act recently, as did Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. It was first dreamed up by former President Donald Trump.
"I'm formally requesting the DOJ begin an immediate investigation into these inhumane efforts to use kids as political pawns," Newsom's tweet said.
His tweet also included an image of the full letter his office emailed to the U.S. Department of Justice calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the practices for "possible civil or criminal violations of federal law," noting that some of the migrants accepted the offer for travel to Boston with the understanding they would receive expedited access to work authorization.
"Like millions of Americans, I have been horrified at the images of migrants being shipped on buses and planes across the country to be used as political props," the letter's opening paragraph read. "Clearly, transporting families, including children, across state lines under false pretenses is morally reprehensible, but it may also be illegal."
The letter also calls on the DOJ to look at whether the actions of the Republican governors might have violated state laws, RICO provisions of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and the civil rights of the migrants involved by allegedly targeting people of specific nationalities.
Newsom has taken aim at Republican policy with a number of high-profile moves of late. Also on Thursday, he launched a billboard campaign in seven of the most restrictive anti-abortion states, urging women seeking the procedure to come to California for treatment. That followed ads that he ran in Florida earlier this summer challenging Florida voters to either, "to join the fight or join us in California."
Last month, Newsom pledged $100,000 to to help Rep. Charlie Crist make DeSantis a "one-term governor." In July, the governor took a swipe at Texas and the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, signing a controversial, first-in-the-nation gun control law patterned after a Texas anti-abortion law. Some have speculated that Newsom's moves on the national stage could presage a future run for president.
Earlier Thursday morning, two buses of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border were dropped off near Vice President Kamala Harris' home in residential Washington in the ongoing battle over the nation's immigration policy.
Abbott tweeted that he'd sent the buses that arrived Thursday: "We're sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border."
About two dozen men and women stood outside the U.S. Naval Observatory at dawn, clutching clear plastic bags of their belongings carried with them over the border, before moving to a nearby church. Harris' office had no immediate comment.
After migrants seeking asylum cross the U.S.-Mexico border, they spend time in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility along the border until they are generally released into the U.S. to wait out their cases. Republicans say Biden's policies encourage migrants to vanish into the U.S.; Democrats argue the Trump-era policy of forcing migrants to wait out their asylum cases in Mexico was inhumane.
DeSantis flew two planes of immigrants to Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday. And last week, Abbott sent about 75 migrants to Chicago.
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency last week over the continued arrival of buses of migrants. The district earlier requested National Guard assistance to help stem a "growing humanitarian crisis" prompted by the arrival of thousands of migrants, but the Pentagon rejected the request.