Mayor Karen Bass’s office was not formally notified but learned Friday of the bus leaving Brownsville, Texas, for Union Station in Los Angeles, said Zach Seidl, a spokesman for the official.
“The City of Los Angeles believes in treating everyone with respect and dignity, and we will,” he said.
The bus arrived around 12:40 p.m. and the 41 asylum seekers on board were greeted by a religious group and migrant advocacy groups. There were 11 children on the bus, according to a statement from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
The asylum seekers come from Cuba, Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela. They received water, food, clothing and immigration legal assistance at the parish center and the Croatian church of San Antonio.
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the coalition, said the group “was less stressed than on the previous occasion.” He said that most of them were picked up by relatives who live in the area and had apparently been given sandwiches and water, unlike last time.
Los Angeles was not the final destination for six of the passengers, who needed to fly to Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland, he added.
On June 14, the city received a bus with 42 immigrants, many of them Latin Americans from Honduras and Venezuela, who were given neither water nor food.
Bass said at the time that the city would not be influenced by “petty politicians who play with human lives.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he sent the bus to Los Angeles because California has declared itself a “sanctuary” for immigrants, extending protections for people living in the country illegally.
It is unknown if Abbott sent the Friday bus. His office did not immediately respond to a phone message.
In early June, the state of Florida picked up more than thirty migrants in Texas and sent them on a private plane to the capital of California, catching shelters and social workers in Sacramento off guard.
FUENTE: Associated Press
