LA Was Ready To Receive Migrants Bused To Union Station By Texas Governor

Local immigrant aid groups have been assisting what they say are 42 migrants, sent by bus to Los Angeles by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a move denounced by L.A.’s mayor as “a despicable stunt.”

The group, which included 18 minors, arrived around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Union Station in downtown L.A., immigrant advocates said. They said three of the children are infants.

According to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, the migrants are asylum seekers who’d been determined to have credible fear and allowed to cross the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. CHIRLA spokesperson Jorge-Mario Cabrera said the group includes migrants from Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, and Haiti. One of the migrants is from China, he said.

Some of the migrants spent Wednesday night in a local church, St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church in Chinatown, while the rest were provided with other shelter, Cabrera said.

As of Thursday afternoon, he said, all had been connected with loved ones, many locally; some left for San Diego and San Francisco, and one man had a court date in New York, but was staying with local relatives. Cabrera said many appeared to have been headed to Southern California.

He said it’s not yet clear if the migrants were duped into signing any documents or made false promises of jobs and housing, as has been reported in other migrant drop-off cases.

Conservative governors target sanctuary jurisdictions

The incident is the latest in a string of drop-offs coordinated by Abbott and his fellow Republican, Florida Gov. Ron De Santis, in which migrants are bused or flown from the border to Democratic-led states and cities. These have included migrants being sent to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, and being left in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’s home in freezing weather on Christmas Eve.

Incidents like these have drawn sharp criticism from immigrant advocates and Democratic leaders who say it’s immoral to use vulnerable, newly arrived migrants as political pawns.

Earlier this month, about three dozen migrants were flown from the border to Sacramento by the state of Florida via private plane, prompting an investigation by California officials into possible criminal charges.

California politicians blast 'despicable stunt'

“While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass slammed Abbott. “It is abhorrent that an American elected official is using human beings as pawns in his cheap political games,” she said in a statement.

Bass said shortly after she took office last December, she directed city departments to begin planning in case L.A. “was on the receiving end of a despicable stunt that Republican Governors have grown so fond of. This did not catch us off guard, nor will it intimidate us.”

The migrants were transported out of Texas on a chartered bus on Tuesday afternoon and driven straight through to L.A., Cabrera said. Immigrant rights groups were tipped off, allowing them to meet the migrants when they arrived and provide them with assistance and shelter.

Advocacy and legal groups provide assistance

Among those assisting were various immigrant aid groups, legal groups, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, according to a coalition calling itself the “L.A. Welcomes Collective.”

In a statement about the drop-off, Abbott said, “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.''

He was referring to a recently approved “sanctuary city” motion in Los Angeles City Hall; the motion calls for an ordinance that would codify many of L.A.’s existing immigrant protection policies into law, and prevent city funds or staff from being used for federal immigration enforcement purposes.

Los Angeles has long held immigrant-friendly policies that include Special Order 40, a decades-old LAPD policy that prevents officers from arresting or questioning someone based on immigration status.