cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/929283

Another bus carrying dozens of migrants from Texas arrived Saturday afternoon at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, courtesy of the governor and taxpayers of the Lone Star State.

The 41 asylum seekers arrived about 12:40 p.m. and were received by the L.A. Welcomes Collective, a network of nonprofit, faith and immigrant rights groups, officials said in a statement. The migrants are from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Belize and Nicaragua.

“With great love and dignity, we extend a warm welcome to our newly arrived brothers and sisters in Los Angeles,” said Martha Arevalo, executive director of American Resource Center-Los Angeles (CARECEN), one of the groups providing resources and support.

A temporary welcome center was set up at nearby St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that her office learned about the bus Friday and immediately began coordinating with the collective, as well as city and county departments, to assist the migrants upon their arrival.

“The City of Los Angeles believes in treating everyone with respect and dignity and will do so,” Bass said.

The migrants were recently paroled by the Border Patrol and voluntarily boarded the bus in Brownsville, Texas, for the 1,600-mile journey, officials said. This is the second bus to arrive from the Texas-Mexico border in just over two weeks, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Los Angeles as the latest Democrat-run city to which his state will bus migrants.

Subscribe to Continue Reading A temporary welcome center was set up for dozens of migrants at St Anthony’s Croatian Church in downtown’s L.A.

A temporary welcome center was set up for dozens of migrants at St Anthony’s Croatian Church in downtown L.A.

(Raul Roa/@Los Angeles Times)

Since April 2022, Texas has bused more than 22,000 migrants to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Washington, D.C. The first bus to L.A., carrying 42 migrants from McAllen, Texas, arrived June 14.

At the time, local activists formed the L.A. Welcomes Collective to assist those migrants. In addition to CARECEN, the collective includes the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Right, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

On Friday, members of that coalition were alerted by the city of Brownsville that a second bus was on its way, and aid workers began preparing to greet the passengers and provide them with food, clothing, shelter and health and legal services.

Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said the group had worked with partners in Texas to ensure that everyone boarding the bus had family, court dates, or both waiting for them in Los Angeles. She said she had been assured that everyone making the trip was given options for meals and plenty of water. Healthcare workers arrive at St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church on Saturday to assist migrants.

Healthcare workers arrive at St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church on Saturday to assist migrants.

(Raul Roa/@Los Angeles Times)

All passengers voluntarily boarded the state-funded buses from Texas, officials said. Abbott has said the buses are a form of protest against Democrats’ immigration policies, but many migrants have been eager to accept the free ride to cities where they could reunite with loved ones. This has led immigrant aid organizations along the Texas border to collaborate with the busing program, even if they refrain from endorsing Abbott’s political message.

“The Haitian Bridge Alliance absolutely condemns Gov. Abbott’s policies and [his practice of] using the lives of extremely vulnerable people … for political games,” Jozef said.

However, she acknowledged that, for many migrants, the buses are an opportunity to reunite with family.

The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a motion, referred to as a “sanctuary city” law, that would essentially codify existing policies around the use of city resources for federal immigration enforcement, including a 2017 executive directive issued by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti.

In June, 36 migrants were sent to Sacramento on chartered flights arranged under the direction of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president who has been critical of President Biden’s immigration policies. The migrants from Central and South America were voluntarily driven by bus from Texas to New Mexico, where they boarded flights to California.

Documents carried by the migrants showed that the flights were arranged through the Florida Division of Emergency Management and that they were part of the state’s program to relocate migrants, mostly from Texas, to other states. Their transportation was paid for by the state of Florida.

The contractor for the program was Vertol Systems Co., which last year coordinated similar flights that took dozens of Venezuelan asylum seekers from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The matter is being investigated by the California state attorney general’s office.

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