It looks like Washington, D.C. may finally be getting just a small taste of what border towns in states like Texas and Arizona have been dealing with for years.
According to local reports, illegal aliens who recently crossed the U.S. border are now overwhelming the nation’s capital, stretching resources thin and clogging up hotel courtyards and even alleyways for lack of other places to sleep.
Now that local homeless shelters are full, hotels have been charged with the task of putting up migrants – and even those spaces are now overflowing.
“Mayor Muriel Bowser called the migrants bussed to DC a ‘humanitarian crisis,’” Mark Segraves, a reporter for NBC 4 Washington, tweeted Thursday, along with photos showing migrants sleeping in piles on hotel lawns and side streets. “That crisis is now playing out at this DC hotel where many migrant families are being housed. Some sleeping in the alley pleading for help.”
DC @MayorBowser called the migrants bussed to DC a “humanitarian crisis” That crisis is now playing out at this DC hotel where many migrant families are being housed. Some sleeping in the alley pleading for help. DC’s low barrier homeless shelters now at capacity. @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/RZ5Bz6St74
— Mark Segraves (@SegravesNBC4) August 4, 2022
“DC’s low barrier homeless shelters now at capacity,” he added.
D.C. began dealing with a massive influx of migrants when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began bussing droves of them into their town, challenging “sanctuary city” leaders like Bowser, along with Democrat lawmakers and President Joe Biden, to deal with the flood their pro-illegal immigration policies has triggered at the border.
Related: Congress' First Mexican-Born Woman Backs Border Security: 'It's the Right Thing To Do'
Struggling under limited resources and an overwhelmed shelter network, Bowser recently called up the National Guard to help deal with the influx – a move that earned her flak from a White House concerned with the “optics” of using military troops to handle migrants.
But even with maxed-out resources and an overstretched government net, Texas ranchers say the problem Bowser and her city is now facing is just a tiny snapshot of the massive problem border towns have struggled with for years.
“"We get thousands and thousands every single day. So for them to get a couple of thousands in a six-week time span is nothing,” Stephanie Crisp-Canales, a Texas rancher, told Fox News, saying she hopes Abbott keeps sending migrants to D.C. until Democrats realize the extent of the burden they’ve only just now begun to deal with.
Another rancher manager, who said he moved to Texas from California last year, said he was stunned at just how much work private landowners have to put in to deal with the mess – including broken fencing, trash, and damaged infrastructure – left by migrants who cross into the U.S. over their land.
"I had no idea what was going on down here until I actually got down here. And it's taking away time and money from projects and other work on the ranch that we need to do. Just from the damage and destruction that is being caused by illegal immigrants coming through the property," Noah Hudson said.
A record-smashing more than 1.6 million illegal aliens have been apprehended at the U.S. border so far this fiscal year, not including July - and, more notably, not including the hundreds of thousands of estimated "got-aways."