Since June, Governor Greg Abbott has sent three buses of migrants from Texas to Los Angeles. It’s part of his “political protests,” which have involved shipping migrants — who were born in Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Haiti, and China — to other sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago. The latest bus arrived at LA’s Union Station last week, holding 30 asylum seekers for some 30 hours.
The LA Welcomes Collective — a network of nonprofit, faith, and immigrant organizations — received advance notice of the bus’ arrival. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) helped form a group to support the migrants upon arrival.
“We wanted to get folks together here in the City of LA to have a different response … that is a little bit more humane and more dignified for the individuals, acknowledging the journey that they've endured in their process of coming into the U.S. and getting paroled in, and then encountering anti-immigrant sentiments in Texas,” says Gloria Cruz, the policy and advocacy director of CHIRLA.
She adds, “We don't want folks to just be dropped off and used as political pawns in the streets but … be received in a dignified way into our community.”
Cruz, the LA Welcomes Collective, Mayor Karen Bass and LA County officials all coordinate to provide asylum seekers with what they need. Volunteers give them general medical assessments, food, hygiene kits, clothes and toys (for kids), legal information, and travel arrangements to reunite with families.
LA Times Reporter Nathan Solis has been covering the arrival of bussed migrants from Texas. He says, “At a certain point, there is probably going to be a sense of these people feeling like they're being used as political pawns. Just like Gloria said, they don't know that that's the environment they're coming into when they agree to these trips.”
Still, he adds, “It sounds like, from our perspective, that these governors from Texas and Florida have no intention to stop [sending out migrants],” he says.