A bus carrying 30 migrants from the US-Mexico border in Texas arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday, the third in a series launched by Gov. Greg Abbott and sent to California.
Volunteers from the LA Welcomes Collective, a network of nonprofit, faith and immigrant rights groups, were waiting along with a representative from the mayor’s office to greet the bus at Union Station when it arrived shortly before 1 p.m. . They were told that the bus had left. the border town of Brownsville early Wednesday.
For the record:
12:32 July 13, 2023An earlier version of this story said the third busload of migrants arrived in Los Angeles early Thursday. The bus arrived Thursday afternoon.
The trip started with 35 asylum seekers, but five left in Salome, Arizona, according to Jorge-Mario Cabrera with the Coalition for Immigrant Human Rights.
Arriving downtown after a 30-hour journey, the remaining migrants were met by paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department and representatives of aid groups.
They were then taken on a bright green DASH bus to St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church, where the Welcomes Collective set up a triage center for passengers arriving from Texas to be reunited with family and access social services.
The collective LA Welcomes set up a triage center for migrants arriving at the Croatian Catholic Church of Saint Anthony.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
At the church, passengers disembarked with backpacks, a guitar and jugs of water. Some carried their children in their arms; others balanced tote bags on their shoulders.
“We are grateful to the City of Brownsville for sending information ahead of time about this bus so we can better prepare to receive them,” Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said in a statement. “We will continue to work with our community partners to welcome migrants with dignity and ensure their legal needs are met.”
Toczylowski’s organization and other members of the collective offered the migrants food, clothing and legal advice upon their arrival at the church. There, passengers were also reunited with family members from around LA
Gaspar Lamour, 36, was there to pick up his cousin Esting Victor, 28, who had traveled from Jacmel, Haiti, with his wife and son. Like most migrants who arrive at the border, Victor already had a relative living in the United States: Lamour has lived in the United States since 2022 with his wife and two children.
Gladys Leon also arrived at the church to pick up her cousin Xochitl, along with Xochitl’s husband and their two children, ages 10 and 2. Leon said the family fled rampant violence in Guerrero, Mexico. She had planned to let them stay with her at her home in Northeast Los Angeles.
“She’s an asylum seeker,” Leon said. “She called me and said she was coming on a bus. She seemed nervous, excited.”
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said the city and county of Los Angeles have been working with the nonprofit coalition and faith-based partners on a response plan put in place this year.
“As we have done before, when we learned about the bus yesterday, we activated our plan,” a Bass spokesman said in a statement.
City and county officials have worked with nonprofit groups and faith-based partners to welcome groups of migrants who have been bussed to LA from Texas.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
This latest bus arrived at the station a little less than a month after the first Texas-funded bus arrived on June 14, carrying 42 migrants. Another bus, with 41 migrants, entered Los Angeles on July 1.
The 118 migrants who have been sent to California are a tiny fraction of the 22,000 Texas has bused to Democratic-led cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Washington.
Abbott has used the buses to protest Democrats’ policies on immigration, often dropping off passengers in places sure to create media spectacles, such as on Vice President Kamala Harris’ lawn on a frosty Christmas night.
However, many migrants have eagerly boarded the buses. For those on a tight budget, a free bus ride to reunite with family in towns far from the border is a welcome offering.
That’s why in Los Angeles, as well as other destination cities, non-profit groups have decided to collaborate with the program, albeit reluctantly. While they are committed to securing aid for the relocation of migrants and helping communities prepare to welcome them, aid groups are reluctant to support Abbott’s political protest.
Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said her organization is coordinating with partners in Texas and the LA Welcomes Collective.
In Texas, the alliance has worked to ensure that all migrant passengers have given consent and are provided with adequate food and water on buses. In LA, Jozef has worked to ensure that local NGOs and city officials are aware and prepared for the arrival of the buses.
Jozef made it clear that she condemns Abbott’s policy and his practice of what she calls “using people as pawns”. But if the buses can be a way for migrants to reunite with family and reach an embracing community, she said, she feels compelled to welcome passengers to board, even if it leaves her organization subject to criticism
Migrants coming from Texas get off a bus at St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
“We are committed to continuing to welcome all people with dignity, and if that means putting someone on a bus to their final destination, where they have family and friends, we will continue to support and welcome them,” Jozef said.
Texas is unlikely to send as many migrants to LA as New York and Washington, given that only a small minority arriving at the Texas border are trying to reach California. Most of those who want to reach the West Coast cross from Tijuana, Mexico’s second largest city, directly to San Diego.
Local officials in Los Angeles have been key partners in welcoming the buses that have arrived, Jozef said.
“We are … grateful to the City and County of Los Angeles for working with various local organizations to ensure that newly arrived members of our community have food, water, legal assistance and other necessities upon arrival and while they connect with their loved ones.” Jozef said in a statement Thursday morning, adding a Haitian proverb: “Anpil men, chay pa lou! Many hands lighten the load.”
