A group of migrants from Brownsville, Texas, arrived at St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles earlier this month. An additional bus of migrants from Texas arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday morning.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
By Nathan Solis Staff Writer
July 27, 2023 Updated 12:42 PM PT
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A bus carrying 36 asylum seekers arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday morning, making them the sixth group of migrants sent to California by the administration of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in the last two months, according to officials.
The bus left Brownsville, Texas, on Wednesday morning around 9:45 a.m. and arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles about 25 hours later, the immigration advocacy group Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights said in a news release.
There were 23 adults and 13 children on the bus, ranging in age from 2 to 54, according to the coalition. They include people seeking asylum from Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
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“In one of the hottest summers in recent history, the lives of 36 asylum seekers have been upended once again by political ploys courtesy of Governor Abbott,” coalition executive director Angelica Salas said in a statement. “We will rise to the moment as we have previously done when our community is being attacked or persecuted, is frightened, or needs guidance and services. We have been here before and we will stand with our community, thick and thin.”
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said they were notified Wednesday about the migrant’s trip to Los Angeles via bus. That’s when the city activated an official response to meet the migrants, which includes a partnership between the city and county, along with faith-based groups and nonprofit organizations.
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A spokesperson for the Texas governor’s office confirmed that a bus from Texas arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday. The Abbott administration was responsible for sending five previous groups of migrants who arrived by bus under an initiative by the Texas governor’s office in a policy that aims to send migrants to so-called “sanctuary” states.
The first bus arrived with 42 asylum seekers on June 14; 41 more people arrived on July 1; 30 on July 13; 41 on July 18; and 44 on July 22, according to CHIRLA.
A spokesperson for Abbot’s office referred the Times to a news release when the first bus arrived in Los Angeles. Abbot said that Texas would continue sending migrants to other parts of the nation until the Biden administration “steps up to do his job and secure the border.”
The federal government sued the state of Texas on Monday after the Abbot administration oversaw the installation of a roughly 1,000-foot line of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys between the border cities of Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico.