Texas sent more asylum seekers to L.A. even as Hilary raged, immigrant rights group says
As Los Angeles was under an unprecedented tropical storm warning and officials were urging residents not to travel, Texas dispatched its latest bus of migrants to the city.
The bus — the ninth sent by Texas since mid-June — arrived at Union Station around 6:45 p.m. Monday carrying 37 migrants. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott afterward, calling the move “evil.”
“As I stood with state and local leaders warning Angelenos to stay safe and brace themselves for the worst of the coming storm,” Bass said in a news release, “the Governor of Texas sent families and toddlers straight for us on a path through extreme weather conditions.”
She continued: “If anybody understands the danger of hurricanes and thunderstorms, it’s the Governor of Texas — who has to deal with this threat on an annual basis. This is a despicable act beyond politics.”
The first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles in 84 years dumped record rainfall and turned streets into muddy, debris-swollen rivers.
Aboard the bus were 16 families, including 14 children and an infant, according to the immigrant rights group the L.A. Welcomes Collective. Twenty of the migrants came from Venezuela, with the others hailing from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Ecuador.
“Migrants were immediately taken to a receiving site in Chinatown where they were offered urgent humanitarian support services, including food, clothing, hygiene kits, health checkups, and immigration-specific legal orientations,” the collective said.
Some of the passengers were reunited with family members or sponsors.
Activists echoed Bass on Monday, calling the transportation of migrants during the region’s recovery from Hilary “reprehensible.”
“It displays a complete and total lack of common humanity,” Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said in a release.
On Sunday evening, Tropical Storm Hilary battered the region with torrential rain, toppling trees, damaging roads and downing power lines in parts of Los Angeles, and causing major flooding and marooning communities in other areas of Southern California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Southern California before the storm made landfall.
Since mid-June, 360 people have arrived in Los Angeles on buses sent from Texas with the support of Abbott.
The last bus, which carried 40 asylum seekers including a 9-month-old infant, arrived in L.A. last week.
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