For the second time, the Pentagon rejected a request Monday from Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser to activate the National Guard to help thousands of immigrants who have arrived in the nation’s capital in recent months. Bowser first requested help from the National Guard last month, but was turned down by the Pentagon on August 4. He then sent another letter on August 11, requesting that 150 National Guard troops be deployed to “help prevent a protracted humanitarian crisis in our country. the country’s capital arising from the daily arrival of immigrants’. Defense Department Executive Secretary Kelly Bulliner Holly wrote in a letter to Bowser on Monday that the D.C. National Guard is not trained to help immigrants and the activation will lead to “diminished readiness” for the troops. “The DCNG has no specific experience or training for this type of mission or unique skills to provide facility management, feeding, sanitation or ground support,” Holley wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by Fox News. “Approval of this request would also have a significant impact on DCNG readiness,” Holley continued. “Dedicating personnel or facilities to such an extended mission would force the cancellation or interruption of military training.” About 7,000 migrants have been bussed from Texas to Washington, D.C., since April, and another 900 have arrived in New York, according to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office. “Before we started busing immigrants to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all the chaos and the problems that come with it,” Abbott said Friday. “Now, the rest of America can understand exactly what’s going on.” WHITE HOUSE ASKED ICE TO INCREASE DEPORTATION Amid IMMIGRATION CRISIS: REPORT Bowser called Monday’s busing of migrants a “politically motivated stunt.” “We are struggling with a broken immigration system in our country and we know that cities alone cannot fix it,” Bowser tweeted. “We will continue to work with federal partners and local NGOs on how best to build systems that allow us to manage an ongoing humanitarian crisis.” Texas launched Operation Lone Star to deal with the influx of immigrants at the southern border in March 2021. Since then, Texas law enforcement has arrested nearly 300,000 immigrants and seized 326 million lethal doses of fentanyl, Abbott said. An immigrant family sits after being processed in Roma, Texas, on May 5, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Pentagon also cited the work of many non-governmental organizations and citizen groups to assist the arrival of immigrants. Bowser’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Liz Friden is a Pentagon producer based in Washington, DC
