DC mayor fears southern border migrants being 'tricked' into being bussed to her city, others in US

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser this past weekend raised concerns about migrants perhaps being "tricked" into being buses from Arizona and Texas to other U.S. states and her city. 

"This is a very significant issue," the Democrat mayor said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "We have for sure called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses."

She spoke after a recent Washington Post story about homeless shelters in D.C. nearing capacity and support groups getting overwhelmed by the influx.

The Republican governors of Arizona and Texas are behind the bus trips.

Bowser also made clear that a federal grant to a local service group – not taxpayers – is covering the cost of the migrants and that she thinks those bussed to the nation's capital are asylum seekers who are ultimately going elsewhere in the U.S.

"Local taxpayers are not picking up the tab and should not pick up the tab," she said. "But I fear [the migrants] are being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America."

As of one month ago, nearly $3 million Texas taxpayer dollars had been spent by the Texas Division of Emergency Management to bus more than 1,700 migrants to Washington D.C.

To offset the cost to state taxpayers, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has tried to raise money for the effort but has so far collected just roughly $115,000 in donations.

The federal government has also joined in transporting migrants away from the border. The Department of Homeland Security is moving illegal migrants to shelters farther north to ease crowding at border facilities while the migrants await their immigration proceedings.

The bussing appears to be part political statement and effort to easing the problems at southern border states. Migrants are being brought to the District as U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported encountering a record of more than 2 million illegal migrants so far this year.