A bus filled with unlawful migrants arrived in Los Angeles from Texas on Monday morning, the 12th such bus sent to the city since Texas began relocating individuals processed by border officials to other jurisdictions around the country.
Zach Seidl, deputy mayor of communications and spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, confirmed the arrival of the bus in a statement:
“One bus with migrants on board from Texas arrived around 7:15 AM PT today at Union Station. This is the twelfth bus that has arrived. The City has continued to work with City Departments, the County, and a coalition of nonprofit organizations, in addition to our faith partners, to execute a plan set in place earlier this year. As we have before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan.”
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) was at the station when the bus arrived to provide resources for those onboard.
“We got maybe a little bit less than 24 hours’ notice,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, per ABC 7 KABC.
“A vast majority of those individuals are children and family units,” Salas added.
The bus contained a total of 42 unlawful migrants, including 11 families from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Russia, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for CHIRLA, said that the majority of the unlawful migrants on the bus have family in the area and will remain in Los Angeles, while the rest will likely be relocated to Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, or Central California, per the LA Times.
Texas first began busing migrants to Los Angeles in June following the local government’s decision to declare it a sanctuary city.
Mayor Bass’ office said that since that decision, 435 unlawful migrants have arrived in LA from Texas, according to Fox 11 Los Angeles.
Abbott has previously stated that the decision to bus unlawful migrants to sanctuary cities was made to provide “critical relief to overwhelmed border towns” in Texas, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The most recent bus arrival comes less than one week after the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to investigate whether legal action can be taken against Abbott.
“These motions are about investigating whether Gov. Greg Abbott committed kidnapping, human trafficking, or any other crimes when he sent vulnerable families on a 23-hour bus ride with little or no food or water,” said Council Member Hugo Soto-Martínez before the vote, according to the LA Times.
Bass also supported the decision to investigate Abbott’s actions, claiming that some of the unlawful migrants arriving “haven’t had any food, barely had enough water,” according to CBS Los Angeles.
“We hear about the buses headed our way when they’re on the way. We have no idea who’s going to be on the bus, how many people it is or what condition they’re going to be in when they get here,” she added.
Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, called council members of the LA City Council “complete hypocrites” following the vote.
“Instead of complaining about dealing with a fraction of the border crisis our small border towns deal with every day, the City Council should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border — something the President continues failing to do,” Mahaleris said, according to Fox News.
