2nd bus carrying asylum seekers from Texas arrives in Los Angeles
A bus carrying migrants from a Texas border town arrived in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday for the second time in less than three weeks.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office was not officially notified, but learned of the bus traveling from Brownsville, Texas to LA Union Station on Friday, Bass spokesman Zach Seidl said in a statement.
“The City of Los Angeles believes in treating everyone with respect and dignity and will do so,” he said.
The bus arrived around 12:40 p.m. and the 41 asylum seekers on board were greeted by a collective of faith and immigrant rights groups. Eleven children were on the bus, according to a statement from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
The asylum seekers came from Cuba, Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela. They received water, food, clothing and initial legal immigration assistance at St. Anthony’s Croatian Parish Center and Church.
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the coalition, said the group was “less stressed and less chaotic than the previous time”. He said most were picked up by family members in the area and had sandwiches and water, unlike the first time.
Los Angeles is not the final destination for six people who have had to fly to Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland, he said.
On June 14, the city received a bus carrying 42 migrants from Texas. Many came from Latin American countries, including Honduras and Venezuela, and were given neither water nor food.
Bass said at the time that the city would not be swayed by “petty politicians playing with lives.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he sent the bus to Los Angeles because California had declared itself a “safe haven” for immigrants and extended protections to people illegally resident in the country.
It was unclear if Abbott sent the latest bus. A phone message to his office was not immediately answered.
In early June, the state of Florida picked up three dozen migrants in Texas and sent them to the California capital on a private jet, surprising shelters and aid workers in Sacramento.
