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| Maryland State Senator Justin Ready questioned the use of taxpayer dollars for a migrant-arrival "drill" Tuesday |
A curious preparedness exercise by the Maryland Department of Emergency Management caught the attention of Republican lawmakers and Baltimore media outlets. Using actors posing as newly-arrived migrants being bused into the state capital on Tuesday, emergency personnel simulated their response to a now-familar scene in cities across America. The "drill" included actors pouring out of buses, and the conversion of two buildings in Annapolis into short-term migrant shelters.
WBFF Fox Baltimore 45 and The Baltimore Sun reported on the exercise yesterday. The two media outlets share an owner, and quoted alarmed GOP elected officials who felt this could be a dry run with a purpose. "It sounds to me like the state is thirsty for this to happen," State Senator Justin Ready (R - District 5) said. State officials told Fox 45 and the Sun that they are not aware of any immediate plans for a major influx of new migrants to Maryland.
Some immigration supporters on social media decried the reports as fearmongering. Most other news outlets ignored the state exercise.
Such an event would hardly qualify as a shock in Maryland, however. The state has accepted the most unaccompanied migrant children of any in America since 2015, and added 33,000 migrants to its population between 2022 and 2023 alone, according to CASA of Maryland.
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