Jeh Johnson: Abbott, DeSantis Bussing Migrants ‘Political Stunt,’ ‘Treating People Like Livestock’

Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Govs. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL) were “treating people like livestoc,” by sending migrants to northern cities.

Anchor Margaret Brennan asked,  “So when it comes to moving migrants around the country right now, you’re a lawyer. The federal government moves migrants from the border to other parts of this country quite often. What’s the difference when a state governor does it? Albeit, I know, without warning.”

Johnson said, “Well, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do that, Margaret. The wrong way is on 20minutes’s notice to send people by bus or airplane to the Edgartown Airport or to Mass Ave. right in front of the vice president’s residence without giving local resources, NGOs, shelter’s local government an opportunity to plan for how they intend to feed and clothe and house migrants. What the governors of Florida and Texas are doing, frankly, is a political stunt and treating people like livestock. The right way to move people to the interior, and I think it’s something that we should do, 8000 a day into McAllen into Henry Cuellar’s district in Laredo or El Paso, I’ve been saying for some time is not sustainable. And so we do need to move people to the interior. But through a well-coordinated effort in coordination with NGOs, Catholic charities, state and local government and the federal government. There is a right way to do that. It requires coordination and cooperation.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN