Thirteenth migrant bus arrives at Union Station from Texas

A busload of migrant families arrived at Los Angeles Union Station Saturday morning from Texas, marking the 13th time since June that Republican leaders have sent immigrants from the conservative state to the city as part of a campaign against “sanctuary” policies.

A coalition of nonprofit organizations and faith leaders called LA Welcomes Collective works with local authorities to welcome asylum seekers and provide services.

“The city continued to work with city departments, the county and a coalition of nonprofit organizations, in addition to our faith-based partners, to execute on a plan put in place earlier this year,” said Zach Seidl, spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass. . “As we did before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan.”

The mayor’s office said the bus arrived at 8:55 a.m. from Texas.

In a press release Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state has bused “more than 480 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14” because of what he and other Republicans called the Biden administration a failure to secure the border. The governor has not commented publicly on the bus’s arrival Saturday.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Immigrant Human Rights Coalition and nonprofit collective, said 46 people arrived Saturday, including 12 families and 15 children.

The migrants arrived from Brownsville, Texas, and are from Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, Cabrera said.

He said the first thing the LA Welcomes Collective does is provide food. Social workers then begin seeing each family one by one to assess their needs.

“In fact, we were told that today, on this particular bus, many had not eaten anything the entire trip,” Cabrera said. “Some said they had chips and water. So they had their first meal in 25 hours.

It is the 13th bus to arrive in Los Angeles from Texas since June 14, sparking concerns among local and state officials.

The Los Angeles City Council voted in August to consider suing the state of Texas and Abbott for sending a bus full of migrants to Los Angeles and to investigate whether those actions violated any criminal laws.

The Texas campaign is a continuation of the immigration wars taking place nationally.

This week, the Times reported that the Biden administration was considering forcing some migrant families entering the country without authorization to stay near the Texas border while awaiting review of asylum applications. Abbott responded by criticizing the president.

A U.S. judge also ordered Abbott to remove floating buoys in the middle of the Rio Grande that were used to stop migrants from crossing the border illegally as part of a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration against the state, according to the media.