Pentagon denies
Guard use request
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon on Monday denied a request from the District of Columbia seeking National Guard assistance in dealing with thousands of migrants being bused to the city from Texas and Arizona.
According to a copy of a letter to the city reviewed by The Associated Press, the Defense Department said use of the D.C. National Guard would be inappropriate and would hurt the overall readiness of the troops, forcing some to cancel or disrupt military training.
The letter states the department also is concerned about putting uniformed military members in direct contact with migrants to provide food, sanitation or other support, saying the troops have no real experience or training for that mission.
The Pentagon also denied the use of the armory, saying it is not air conditioned and would have to undergo costly changes and repairs to make it suitable for overnight stays.
When the Defense Department rejected the first request, officials said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's food and shelter program has provided funding for the problem, and has indicated those funds are sufficient at this point. The latest letter said the city should continue to work with non-government groups to address the issue.
As of Aug. 5, Texas had bused more than 7,000 migrants to Washington, D.C., and more than 900 to New York City, according to the governor's office. As of Aug. 22, the state of Arizona has sent 1,516 migrants to D.C., in 41 trips, according to the governor's office. Two to three buses leave each week, and each can hold a maximum of 40 migrants.
When her initial request was turned down, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she expects the problem to only get worse and that if D.C. were a state, she would have already used the Guard for assistance.
State governors control the use of their Guard troops for any state duties. But, as the D.C. mayor, Bowser does not have the authority to personally order a National Guard deployment.
A coalition of local charitable groups has been working to feed and shelter the migrants, aided by a $1 million grant from FEMA. But organizers have been warning that both their resources and personnel were nearing exhaustion.
Families of Uvalde
prepare lawsuit
New York Daily News (TNS)
The families of the victims and survivors of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, are preparing to file a lawsuit against the local and state police, the shop that sold gunman Salvador Ramos his weapon and the manufacturer who made the gun.
Attorney Charles Bonner announced Sunday that he is filing a $27 billion civil rights lawsuit against the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, school police chief Pete Arredondo, sheriff's offices, the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol, the Uvalde school board, the Uvalde City Council and the City of Uvalde.
Also listed in the lawsuit are gun manufacturer Daniel Defense and Oasis Outback, where Ramos bought the gun.
"People have a right to life under the 14th Amendment, and what we've seen here is that the law enforcement agencies have shown a deliberate conscious disregard of the life," Bonner said. "Everyone in this world are hurting and bleeding about what is happening here in Uvalde. And it's up to us to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed inside classrooms on May 24 as hundreds of police officers poured into the school and stood by as Ramos shot up the school.
Arredondo, the on-scene commander, was placed on unpaid leave in June and the school superintendent has recommended he be fired.
"Given the information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and who later died on the way to the hospital, it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue," reads a report from the Texas House Investigative Committee released in June.
The 376 responding officers "failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety," according to the report.
Bonner said he is preparing the lawsuit to file in September.