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Doocy Spars With Jean-Pierre On Illegal Immigration

[Screenshot/White House]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy sparred with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on illegal immigration at Thursday’s press briefing.

Doocy asked if President Joe Biden would approve Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request to deploy the National Guard to deal with illegal migrants bussed to the city from Texas and Arizona. Jean-Pierre said the Department of Defense will make that decision, then accused Republicans of using migrants as a “political tool.”

“We have been in regular touch with Mayor Bowser and her team,” Jean-Pierre said. “I said this last week about Republicans using migrants as a political tool, and that is shameful and that is just wrong. There is a process in place for managing migrants at the border. This is not it, what they’re doing currently. That includes expelling migrants as required by court order under Title 42, transferring them to ICE custody or placing them in the care of local NGOs as they await further processing.”

“So, the White House’s preference would be for small towns in Texas and Arizona to have to take care of these migrants rather than a large, metropolitan city like Washington, D.C.,” Doocy said.

“That is not what I said,” Jean-Pierre said.

“That is what you said,” the Fox News reporter interjected. “You said you think people are using migrants.”

“Yeah, they are,” the press secretary argued. “They’re sending migrants to big cities on purpose using them as a political ploy.”

Doocy asked where the migrants should go, if not to big cities. Jean-Pierre answered there is an immigration process for locating migrants in the U.S. (RELATED: Karine Jean-Pierre Calls Bussing Of Migrants To Liberal Cities ‘Shameful’ As Border Crisis Continues) 

“There’s a process when they come to a big city and now the mayor said she needs the National Guard?” Doocy pressed. Jean-Pierre repeated that Republicans are “using migrants.”

“They’re using migrants who are coming here for, who knows? Because they’re dealing with humanitarian issues back in their country. They’re coming here for a better life and they are being used, Peter, they’re being used by Republican governors. That is what’s happening,” she said.

Doocy then pressed Jean-Pierre on whether the president would consider “closing the border” to ease the tensions in American cities and communities. The press secretary repeated that Republican governors are using migrants as a political ploy.

Abbott’s plan to bus migrants to D.C. came about in response to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially planning to reverse Title 42, a Trump-era COVID-19 protocol allowing for the expulsion of over 2 million migrants since the policy was enacted. Migrants were bussed to D.C. under the orders of the governors to push the Biden administration to “more immediately address the needs” of the migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The first bus sent by Texas dropped off 24 migrants near the Fox News bureau April 13, then 14 more were dropped off the following day. A third bus reportedly dropped off 30 migrants. Around 3,500 migrants have been bussed to the city from Texas and Arizona since April, according to the Washingtonian.

Bowser has labeled the continuous bussing a “humanitarian crisis” as the city’s homeless shelters continue to grow overwhelmed by the influx of migrants.

Abbott’s office told the Daily Caller News Foundation that D.C. is experiencing the same hardships that Texans go through on a daily basis due to the influx of migration.

“Washington, D.C. finally understands what Texans have been dealing with every single day, as our communities are overrun and overwhelmed by thousands of illegal immigrants thanks to President Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said.