Related Post
(Trends Wide) — A bus carrying 41 migrants from Brownsville, Texas, arrived in Southern California on Saturday, the second such shipment from the region in two weeks.
The Texas-funded bus arrived at Union Station at 12:40 p.m. local time. The intake of migrants began shortly after they arrived with a legal orientation, according to Angélica Salas, executive director of the Los Angeles Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
Members of the group, which included 11 children, came from Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, Salas said at a news conference.
City officials learned of the upcoming arrival Friday and mobilized with a coalition of nonprofit groups and faith-based organizations to welcome the immigrants, Mayor Karen Bass’ spokesman Zach Seidl said in a statement.
The mayor’s office said it “had not been formally notified” before learning the migrants were heading to the city, according to the statement.
“The City of Los Angeles believes in treating everyone with respect and dignity and will do so,” Seidl said.
Republican governors have been transporting immigrants to various Democratic-run states and cities as a form of protest against the federal government’s policies on the southern border, which they say are inadequate.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent immigrants from Texas to Los Angeles for the first time on June 14, as the state continued to push back against federal policies.
Bass called the move “a political trap” in an interview last month with Trends Wide’s Jake Tapper.
“I think it’s despicable to use individuals in this way,” Bass said. “If he was honest he would have contacted Los Angeles, he would have told us that people were coming, he would have told us who the individuals were, but they didn’t do any of that.”
A collective of various organizations, including “immigration legal service providers and faith-based organizations focused on rapid response to immigrant arrivals,” welcomed immigrants to the Golden State, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights reported in a statement.
“Regardless of origin, mode of transportation or reason, Los Angeles is organized and ready to receive these asylum seekers when they arrive here. If Los Angeles is their last destination, we will make sure this is the place where they have a reception. genuine and humane,” Salas said.
Immigrants will receive legal help from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center if they need it in immigration court, executive director Lindsay Toczylowski told Trends Wide’s Camila Bernal in an interview.
“We look at the documents that they came from so we can advise them on the next steps in their case,” Toczylowski said.
Abbott has bused more than 23,000 immigrants to cities across the country, including Washington City, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles, according to a publication on Abbott’s official Twitter account dated June 27.
That post said that more than 40 immigrants had been transported to Los Angeles, Trends Wide previously reported.
Trends Wide reached out to Abbott’s office for comment, to no avail.
In June, California officials launched an investigation after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis allegedly arranged for the migrants to be taken from Texas to New Mexico and then flown by private plane to California.
The authorities are investigating whether these immigrants were deceived with false promises.
Trends Wide’s Taylor Romine, Elizabeth Joseph, Kate Sullivan, Sam Fossum and Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report.
