Third bus of migrants arrives in L.A. from Texas, latest in Gov. Abbott’s political protest
Migrants who were bused from Brownsville, Texas, arrive at St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles on Thursday.
A bus carrying 30 migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday, the third in a series launched by Gov. Greg Abbott and sent to California.
Volunteers with the L.A. Welcomes Collective, a network of nonprofit, faith and immigrant rights groups, were waiting along with a representative from the mayor’s office to greet the bus at Union Station when it arrived shortly before 1 p.m. They were alerted that the bus had left the border city of Brownsville early Wednesday.
For the record:
12:32 p.m. July 13, 2023A previous version of this story said the third bus of migrants arrived in Los Angeles early Thursday. The bus arrived Thursday afternoon.
The trip started with 35 asylum seekers, but five got out in Salome, Ariz., according to Jorge-Mario Cabrera with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
Arriving downtown after a 30-hour journey, the remaining migrants were met by paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department and representatives from the aid groups.
They were then taken on a bright green DASH bus to St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church, where the Welcomes Collective set up a triage center for passengers arriving from Texas to reunite with family and access social services.
The L.A. Welcomes Collective set up a triage center for the arriving migrants at St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church.
At the church, passengers disembarked with backpacks, a guitar and jugs of water. Some carried their children in their arms; others balanced tote bags on their shoulders.
“We are grateful to the City of Brownsville for sending information in advance about this bus so we can better prepare to welcome them,” Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said in a statement. “We will continue to work with our community partners to receive migrants with dignity and ensure their legal needs are met.”
Toczylowski’s organization and others in the collective offered migrants food, clothing and legal consultations upon their arrival at the church. There, passengers also reunited with family members from around L.A.
Gaspar Lamour, 36, was there to pick up his cousin Esting Victor, 28, who had journeyed from Jacmel, Haiti, with his wife and child. Like most migrants arriving at the border, Victor already had a family member living in the States — Lamour has lived in the U.S. since 2022 with his wife and two children.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is caught in an increasingly nasty feud with fellow Republicans. So how better to flex political muscle than packing migrants off to California?
Gladys Leon also arrived at the church to pick up her cousin Xochitl, along with Xochitl’s husband and their two children, 10 and 2. Leon said the family fled rampant violence in Guerrero, Mexico. She planned on letting them stay with her at her home in northeast Los Angeles.
“She’s an asylum seeker,” Leon said. “She called me and said she was coming on a bus. She sounded nervous, excited.”
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said the city and county of Los Angeles have been working with the nonprofit coalition and faith partners according to a response plan put in place this year.
“As we have before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan,” a spokesperson for Bass said in a statement.
This latest bus rolled into the station a little less than a month after the first Texas-funded bus arrived there June 14, carrying 42 migrants. Another bus, carrying 41 migrants, pulled into L.A. on July 1.
The 118 migrants who have been sent to California are a small fraction of the 22,000 whom Texas has bused to Democrat-run cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Washington.
Abbott has used the buses to protest Democrats’ policies on immigration, often dropping passengers off at locations sure to create media spectacles — for instance, on Vice President Kamala Harris’ lawn on a freezing Christmas Eve night.
However, many migrants have eagerly boarded the buses. For those with few resources, a free bus ride to reunite with family in cities distant from the border is a welcome offer.
Sister Norma Pimentel, a nun famous for her compassion toward migrants, said that parties on both sides of the aisle turned the bus carrying migrants from Texas to L.A. into a spectacle.
That’s why in Los Angeles, as well as other destination cities, nonprofit groups have decided to collaborate with the program, albeit begrudgingly. Though committed to getting migrants relocation assistance and helping communities prepare to welcome them, the aid groups are loath to support Abbott’s political protest.
Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said her organization is coordinating with partners in Texas and the L.A. Welcomes Collective.
In Texas, the alliance has worked to ensure that all migrant passengers have given consent and are provided with adequate food and water on the buses. In L.A., Jozef has worked to make sure that local nongovernmental organizations and city officials are aware and prepared for the buses’ arrival.
Jozef was clear that she condemns Abbott’s politics and his practice of what she calls “using people as pawns.” But if the buses can be a way for migrants to reunite with family and get to an embracing community, she said, she feels obligated to welcome the passengers to board — even if it leaves her organization subject to criticism.
“We are committed to continuing to welcome all people with dignity, and if that means somebody putting them on a bus to their final destination, where they have family and friends, we will continue to support and welcome them,” Jozef said.
It’s unlikely that Texas will send as many migrants to L.A. as it has to New York and Washington, given that only a small minority arriving on the Texas border are trying to make it to California. Most who want to reach the West Coast cross from Tijuana — Mexico’s second-largest city — straight into San Diego.
Local officials in Los Angeles have been key partners in welcoming the buses that have arrived, Jozef said.
“We are … grateful to the city and county of Los Angeles for working with various local organizations to make sure that our newly arrived community members have food, water, legal assistance, and other necessities upon arrival and while connecting with their loved ones,” Jozef said in a statement Thursday morning, adding a Haitian proverb: “Anpil men, chay pa lou! Many hands lighten the load.”
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