“I wanted San Antonio, but I ran out of money,” said Mr. Alejos, 28, who has no family in the United States. “I got on the bus to Washington.” A few days later, he arrived in the nation’s capital, among a busload of weary migrants. He spent the first night on the square across from Union Station, but eventually found a bed at the Central Union Mission, where he hopes to stay until he can apply for asylum, get a work permit and find a job — a process that could take months. A political tactic by the governors of Texas and Arizona to deal with problems caused by record levels of immigration at the border is starting to take its toll on Washington, as hundreds of undocumented immigrants arriving on the governors’ free buses each week increasingly tax more the capital. ability to provide emergency food and shelter. With no money and no family to take them in, immigrants are overwhelming immigrant nonprofits and other volunteer groups, with many ending up in homeless shelters or on park benches. Five buses arrived on a recent day, pouring young men and families with nowhere to go onto the streets near the Capitol. Since April, Texas has delivered more than 6,200 immigrants to the nation’s capital, with Arizona sending an additional 1,000 since May. The influx prompted Muriel E. Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, to ask the Defense Department to send in the National Guard. The request has angered organizations that help immigrants without any support from the city. The vast majority of recent bus passengers are Venezuelans fleeing the crisis-hit country, and many have also arrived in New York, often via Washington. Eric Adams, New York’s mayor, announced emergency measures Monday to allow the city to quickly build additional shelter capacity. The mayor, also a Democrat, said the city had taken in 4,000 asylum seekers since May, fueling a 10 percent increase in the homeless population, with about 100 new arrivals each day. Venezuelans show up daily at the offices of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York asking for help. “Their main concern was a place to stay, food for their children,” said Maryann Tharappel, who directs the organization’s immigrant and refugee services. “The infrastructure in New York is not built for this,” he said. “We are not at the border.” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, both Republicans, blame President Biden for record numbers of immigrants crossing the southern border. Cities along the border in Texas and Arizona have at times been overwhelmed by a surge in unauthorized border crossings that peaked under the Biden administration, which sought to loosen some of the harsh border restrictions imposed by former President Donald J. Trump. While thousands of immigrants were quickly deported under a pandemic-related health order known as Title 42, thousands more are being allowed into the country to file for asylum because they cannot be returned to Mexico or their home countries. State officials in Texas and Arizona are welcoming many of the migrants after their release from US Border Patrol custody, offering them free bus rides to Washington in an effort to force the federal government to take responsibility for what they say it’s a failed immigration system. After arriving at their destinations, immigrants may remain in the country for months or even years while they fight their deportation cases in court. they are allowed to work while pursuing asylum claims. The situation has become acute in recent weeks with the arrival of so many Venezuelans who cannot be deported under Title 42 because Mexico will not accept them and their government does not have an agreement with the United States to accept deportation flights. And unlike most Mexican and Central American immigrants who have family and friends in the United States, Venezuelans often arrive with no money and nowhere to go. The Border Patrol encountered 110,467 Venezuelans along the southern border in the first nine months of this fiscal year, compared to 47,408 in the entire 2021 fiscal year. Overall unauthorized crossings have decreased with the arrival of hot summer temperatures.

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The situation has led to recriminations with Democratic mayors on the East Coast in recent weeks. In the latest leap, on Monday, Mr Abbott sent a letter to the mayors, Mr Adams and Ms Bowser, inviting them to navigate the “difficult situation” at the border with Mexico. “Your recent interest in this historic and preventable crisis is a welcome development – especially as the president and his administration have shown no remorse for their actions and no desire to deal with the situation themselves,” Mr Abbott wrote. Fabien Levy, the New York mayor’s spokesman, had the following statement: “Instead of a picture at the border, we hope that Governor Abbott will focus his energy and resources on providing support and resources to asylum seekers in Texas, as we struggled. work in New York.” The Texas governor and mayors agree on one point: All three are calling on the federal government to act. “The immigration crisis facing our city and our country through hardball political games by the governors of Texas and Arizona must be addressed at the federal level,” Ms. Bowser wrote in a letter to White House officials. Calling for a processing center at the D.C. Armory and the activation of the National Guard, he said the number of immigrants had reached a “tipping point” that had “overwhelmed” the region’s ability to handle them. Ms. Bauer’s request drew rebuke from immigrant advocates, who said she had ignored repeated requests for shelter space, a rest center and rapid coronavirus testing for immigrants, among other things. “The last thing we want is a militarized response to a humanitarian crisis,” said Andrea Scherff, an organizer with the Solidarity Migrant Solidarity Network, a coalition of grassroots groups. Noting that Washington is a sanctuary city for immigrants, he said, “We need to meet housing needs for everyone.” The Biden administration said it had been in contact with Mayor Bowser, but White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said the governors were using immigrants as a “political tool” for their own purposes. “There is a process to manage migrants at the border. It’s not that,” he said, adding that the administration continued to deport some immigrants, detain others and release those eligible to the care of local nonprofits “as they await processing.” About 15 faith and community groups in Washington opened their doors to the migrants, offering them meals, showers and hygiene items during the day. But increasing the frequency of the buses, from two to four a day to now sometimes eight, has depleted donations and exceeded capacity, and many volunteers have contracted Covid-19, Ms Scherff said. “The mayors were playing into the hands of Republican governors,” said Adam Isaacson, a scholar at the Washington Office on Latin America who studies the border. “Of course they make noise about the arrivals of immigrants because those who need shelter burden the social services of their cities,” he said. But “the thrust of their comments,” he said, gives governors ammunition to push for a crackdown on immigration, including measures like building a border wall and eliminating asylum. On a recent night, migrants disembarking from three buses were greeted by volunteers and staff from SAMU First Response, an international aid organization that has received some funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and began operating in Washington in late June. They were given water, pizza and granola bars, and some were given tickets for the next trip. By 1 a.m., most had spent the night on the marble floor of Union Station’s East Hall. Others, from earlier buses, were forced to sleep on the streets. He created an unusual tableau: stray Americans on one side of the square. on the other, immigrants with their meager possessions were thrown to the ground — all in front of the Capitol. Tatiana Laborde, SAMU’s chief executive, said her organization had enough funds to buy tickets to other destinations for about a third of the migrants they served. The group’s shelter in Montgomery County, Md., could not provide long-term housing, he said. Ten City Council members have sent a letter to Washington’s mayor, urging her not only to seek federal aid, but also to release emergency funds and recruit staff to help immigrants, as well as provide Covid testing, isolation hotels and other resources. “This is a crisis created by Republican leaders in other states, but unfortunately it’s up to the mayor to allocate resources locally,” said Brianne Nadeau, the council member who drafted the letter. Many Venezuelans said they made the trip to the United States because they believed the country’s doors were open. “On TikTok, we saw that people were entering the United States easily,” said Yennifer Ortiz, who made the trip with her partner, Luis Moreno, and their 5-year-old daughter, Sofia. Their trip to the United States took 45 days, including nine days crossing the dangerous jungle on the border of Colombia and Panama, known as the Darién Gap, Mr. Moreno said. Until…