2nd bus carrying asylum seekers from Texas arrives in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A bus carrying migrants from a Texas border city arrived in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday for the second time in less than three weeks.
The office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was not formally notified but became aware on Friday of the bus dispatched from Brownsville, Texas, to L.A. Union Station, Bass spokesperson 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 welcomed by a collective of faith and immigrant rights groups. Eleven children were on the bus, according to a statement by 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 spokesperson for the coalition, said the group “was less stressed and less chaotic than the previous time.” He said most were picked up by family in the area and appeared to have had sandwiches and water, unlike the first time.
Los Angeles was not the final destination for six people who needed to fly to Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland, he said.
The city received a bus carrying 42 migrants from Texas on June 14. Many were from Latin American countries, including Honduras and Venezuela, and they were not provided with water or food.
Bass said at the time that the city would not be swayed by “petty politicians playing with human lives.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he sent the bus to Los Angeles because California had declared itself a “sanctuary” for immigrants, extending protections to people living in the country illegally.
It was unclear if Abbott sent the latest bus. A phone message to his office was not immediately returned.
Earlier in June, the state of Florida picked up three dozen migrants in Texas and sent them by private jet to California’s capital, catching shelters and aid workers in Sacramento by surprise.
