| Republican leaders explain that they're making a point about immigration policy and how America needs to secure its borders…as if it's morally acceptable to simply use people at their most vulnerable to make such a point. Abbott, DeSantis, and those cheering them seem to forget these are people, not chess pieces. People who came to America seeking opportunity, protection, and rights—and in return got treated like inanimate objects in bids to score points against political opponents.
"Harris claims our border is 'secure' [and] denies the crisis," Abbott tweeted. "We're sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job [and] secure the border."
If Abbott's assertions don't make it clear enough that this is merely a political stunt, one need only look at the way these operations are going down.
If this were just a matter of resources being spread too thin in border states, facilities being full, or jobs being more abundant elsewhere, leaders in Florida, Texas, and Arizona (which has also been busing migrants to other states) would coordinate with states where they were sending people—or at least give them some advance warning. They would also pick places where migrants could be conveniently received. Instead, they're sending busloads of migrants to these places unannounced, and dropping them off without warning at places like the vice president's house.
"The fact that Fox News, and not the Department of Homeland Security, the city or local NGOs were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children, on the side of a busy D.C. street makes clear that this was just a cruel premeditated political stunt," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
I know the idea is supposed to be that border states don't know when migrants will arrive, or in what numbers, so this is giving Democratic-controlled locales a taste of that. But border states are nonetheless prepared for migrant arrivals more generally. They have systems in place—and ample federal assistance—in addressing their arrival. It is not the same to simply send buses or planes full of people to places with no expectation that they're coming.
"Carla Bustillos, a volunteer working with NGOs that care for migrants, said the coalition of organizations was waiting for the buses to arrive at Union Station, only to find they had dropped the migrants off outside the Vice President's residency," reports Reuters.
"While we're doing this political show, we have human beings feeling that their suffering is being exploited," Bustillos told Reuters. "They have come to the United States to seek asylum and they have been told to get on these buses and promised that an organization would receive them here, give them food, shelter and a job."
If we just let people who arrive freely connect with employers, communities, and charities instead of jumping through a million legal hoops, many more of them would simply get themselves where they need to go—and go on to contribute to the beautiful pluralism and diversity that makes America great. Having migrants in your community isn't a punishment, something Abbott and DeSantis seem to have lost sight of. | 
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