White House condemns Texas governor after migrants were dropped off outside Kamala Harris' house: 'Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures'

• The White House slammed Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas after buses of migrants arrived in Washington, DC.
• Migrants arrived on Christmas Eve outside Vice President Kamala Harris' home.

The White House condemned Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas after busloads of migrants were reportedly dropped off outside Vice President Kamala Harris' residence in Washington, DC, on one of the coldest Christmas Eves on record in the nation's capital.

"Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities," a White House representative, Abdullah Hasan, said in a statement. "This was a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt."

Democrats have blamed the situation on Abbott, who since April has bused migrants from Texas to major Democratic-led cities including Washington, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia to protest the Biden administration's immigration policies.

"As we have repeatedly said, we are willing to work with anyone — Republican or Democrat alike — on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office," Hasan added, "but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger."

Three buses filled with more than 100 migrants arrived from Texas on Saturday at the Naval Observatory, where Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff live, reports said.

A mutual-aid group that has for months been welcoming these migrants said the buses were sent by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, The New York Times reported. Volunteers coordinated transportation, temporary housing, and food for the migrants.

"It really does show the cruelty behind Gov. Abbott and his insistence on continuing to bus people here without care about people arriving late at night on Christmas Eve when the weather is so cold," Amy Fischer, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, told WJLA, an ABC affiliate in Washington, DC. "People are getting off the buses, they don't have coats, they don't have clothes for this kind of weather, and they're freezing."

Abbott has not claimed responsibility for the latest arrivals of migrants in Washington, DC, and his office did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Monday.

The Texas governor has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden's response to the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border and called for federal support to address the border crossings. Abbott had sent migrants to Harris' home in September to pressure the administration to take further action.

"Texas will continue sending migrants to sanctuary cities like Washington, D.C. until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their jobs to secure the border," Abbott said in a statement at the time.

The governor's office said in a statement last week that the Lone Star State had bused more than 8,700 migrants to the nation's capital since the spring.

In a letter to the president last Tuesday, Abbott urged Biden to "secure the southern border" as the future of a controversial Trump-era immigration policy called Title 42 that allowed the US to turn away asylum seekers at the border because of public-health concerns remains uncertain.

Title 42, enacted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, was set to end last week, but the Supreme Court kept it in place temporarily. Abbott and other Republican governors have urged the courts to maintain the policy, arguing that its expiration would result in an increase in migrants at the border, exacerbating the problem.