Texas Governor Greg Abbott (right) announced on Wednesday that a busload of migrants from the state had arrived in Los Angeles for the first time, adding to the growing list of cities that have received migrants by order of Abbott.
“Los Angeles is a great city that migrants seek to travel to, especially now that its city leaders have endorsed its status as a self-declared sanctuary city,” Abbott said in a statement. statement out Wednesday night. “Our border communities are on the front lines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue to provide this much-needed assistance until it steps in to do its job and secure the border.”
According to the statement, the migrants were dropped off at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. The arrival follows more than a year after Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to charter buses of migrants released from Texas federal custody to Washington, DC, to respond to decisions made by President Joe Biden.
Last year, Biden announced that he end Title 42a pandemic-era policy put in place under the Donald Trump administration that sent asylum seekers back across the border to Mexico.
In his letter to TDEM in April 2022, Abbott said Biden’s decision would lead to an influx of thousands of migrants into Texas, for which the US Department of Homeland Security “has no real plan.” He added that Texas’ resources are “already overstretched” and the state would not be able to manage migrant groups in Texas communities.
After more than 40 migrants arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Brass released a statement saying the city executed an emergency management plan developed in advance by local, state and federal departments as well as nonprofit organizations.
“It is heinous that an American elected official should use human beings as pawns in his cheap political games,” Bass said in the statement. “Shortly after taking office, I directed city departments to begin planning in case Los Angeles fell victim to a despicable blow that Republican governors have become so fond of.”
Despite disapproval of Abbott’s plan, Brass stressed that Los Angeles “seeks to treat all people with dignity and compassion” and “will not be swayed or moved by petty politicians playing with human lives.”
“For everything we do, we will continue to stick together and we will continue to lead. And we will always put the health and well-being of people before politics,” she said.
Migrants who were sent on a bus from Texas line a sidewalk near the US Capitol on August 11, 2022.
Abbott has bussed migrants over the past year to other cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and, more recently, Denver. According to the Texas Tribune, the state sent more than 19,000 migrants to these cities, prompting city officials to speak out.
Last month, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote a letter to Abbott to urge him to stop sending migrants to the city, which she described as a “dangerous and inhumane action”. Chicago has received more than 8,000 men, women and children from Texas since August and was facing a lack of shelter and resources.
“None of these urgent needs have been met in Texas,” Lightfoot said, referring to the fact that nearly all migrants were in dire need of food, water, clothing and medical attention. “Instead, these individuals and families were crammed into buses and shipped across the country like freight, with no regard for their personal circumstances.”
Several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as politicians have spoken out against Abbott’s migrant bus program. In April, the Texas Democratic Party said Abbott was trying to “demonize immigrants.”
“For years, Republicans in Texas have treated the southern border as a corner issue, creating a narrative that stirs emotions but overlooks the truth,” the Texas Democratic Party said in a statement. statement.