More migrants arrive in Los Angeles on buses from Texas
Multiple buses carrying migrants rolled into the parking lot of St. Anthony's Croatian Church in Chinatown Thursday, the latest in a series of several arrivals from Texas.
One LA resident, Gladys Leon, was there to greet her cousin, Xochitl.
"She was the one who told me she would be coming to LA," she told KCAL News.
Leon said Xochitl was forced to flee her home in Guerrero, Mexico, with her husband and two children after experiencing extreme violence. They took a bus to the border, arrived at Brownsville, Texas and filed for asylum status. They were then granted a bus ride to LA.
The group was escorted by Los Angeles Police Department patrol officers. According to the Coalition of Human Immigrant Rights, Los Angeles, there are 35 migrants from Brownsville, Texas. They will receive food, clothing, legal immigration consultations, and get help facilitating family reunions with loved ones in the area.
This is the third bus arrival filled with asylum seekers sent from Texas to LA. This ride took 30 hours after the bus overheated, forcing the driver to take things slow and add an extra ten hours to the trip, advocates said.
A spokesperson for LA Mayor Karen Bass said "One bus from Texas arrived around 12:40 p.m. today at Union Station. 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."
Lindsay Toczylowski, Immigrant Defenders Law Center executive director, said in a statement that the center is "proud to offer legal support to people arriving in Los Angeles.
"We are grateful to the City of Brownsville for sending information in advance about this bus so we can better prepare to welcome them," Toczylowski 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."
The first bus of migrants arrived on June 14, followed by a second bus on July 1, which carried 41 migrants and 42 migrants, respectively.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently proclaimed his state's border region "overrun" and hinted that more shipments of immigrants could follow.
"Texas' small border towns remain overwhelmed and overrun by the thousands of people illegally crossing into Texas from Mexico because of President Biden's refusal to secure the border," Abbott said in a statement after the first bus arrived. "Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status. Our border communities are on the front lines of President Biden's border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much- needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border."
In June, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a motion directing the city to draft a "Sanctuary City" ordinance that, when passed, would prohibit any city resources, property or personnel from being utilized for any federal immigration enforcement.