Three buses coming from Texas dropped off more than 100 migrants outside of Vice President Kamala Harris’ home in the District on Christmas Eve. The migrants, many of them children, had to endure frigid temperatures as volunteers worked to get them warm clothes and food.
Tatiana Laborde, the managing director of SAMU First Response, a migrant aid group, said they expect this to continue, despite the dangerously cold conditions.
Images show volunteers welcoming migrants after they were dropped off outside the Naval Observatory. They were given blankets and food, and eventually taken to a local church.
Laborde’s agency has been working with the District to help the thousands of migrants that have been bussed in since April. She said despite it being a holiday weekend, volunteers showed up to help out.
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“We tried to minimize the time that they were spending outside. We moved them from one bus to the other as fast as we could. We had blankets available,” she said.
What happened on Saturday was noteworthy because the temperatures were in the teens when the migrants were dropped off, and because it was Christmas Eve. Migrants, however, have been bussed from Texas and Arizona since the spring, so this is nothing new for volunteers.
“The fact that it’s not on the news every day doesn’t mean that it’s gone. We need to continue working as a community on ways to provide services for the longer term,” Laborde said.
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On Christmas, volunteers with SAMU also provided gifts for migrant families.
“It is heartbreaking,” Laborde added. “Over months we’ve seen babies that are a couple of days old come in the buses so, that is the most difficult. But we also try to bring light and joy to these kids.”
While the majority of the migrants do not stay in D.C., there’s some who do.
A migrant from Venezuela who has now been in the nation’s capital for three months said it was difficult to spend Christmas away from his family.
“It’s been hard,” Miguel Angel Rincon Gonzalez said. “Life here isn’t easy.”
With two young children, he’s doing the best that he can to find work and send money back to them. His hope is to one day bring them all to the U.S.
Since mid-June, SAMU First Response has helped out more than 5,600 migrants.
