Nonprofits offer to help immigrants dropped off at Union Station

A group of immigrants bused hundreds of miles from the Texas border area unexpectedly arrived at Los Angeles downtown’s Union Station, and nonprofit groups Thursday were offering to assist those migrants.

“Texas’ small border towns remain overwhelmed and overrun by the thousands of people illegally crossing into Texas from Mexico because of President Biden’s refusal to secure the border,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement. “Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status. Our border communities are on the front lines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much-needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border.”

The Haitian Bridge Alliance is one of the nonprofit groups offering assistance to the migrants. Six of the migrants are of Haitian descent, including a family of three, two adult cousins and one adult.

“We coordinated with the city (of Los Angeles) and the mayor’s office to make sure these individuals were greeted with dignity and to make sure they received the assistance that they needed,” Daniel Tse, the group’s asylum task force coordinator, told CNN.

The Immigrant Defenders Law Center is also offering assistance.

“They’re coming with the hope that they can keep themselves and their children safe. And so instead of treating them as political props, here in Los Angeles, we will treat them with the dignity that they deserve as human beings,” Lindsay Toczylowski told reporters on Wednesday.

The Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley also greeted the migrants at Union Station and offered to help them.

“The state of Texas offered transportation to Los Angeles,” Sister Norma Pintel told CNN. “Through coordination, we made sure that the families wanting to go to Los Angeles would have someone that would meet them and provide a place to stay.”

The Los Angeles City Council last week approved a motion directing various city departments to take the steps required for Los Angeles to officially become a sanctuary city for immigrants.

According to media reports, 42 immigrants, including eight children, were dropped off in Los Angeles Wednesday. It was unclear if additional buses might be en route.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement saying it is “abhorrent that an American elected official is using human beings as pawns in his cheap political games.”

“Shortly after I took office, I directed city departments to begin planning in the event Los Angeles was on the receiving end of a despicable stunt that Republican governors have grown so fond of,” Bass said. “This did not catch us off guard, nor will it intimidate us. Now, it’s time to execute our plan. Our emergency management, police, fire and other departments were able to find out about the incoming arrival while the bus was on its way and were already mobilized along with nonprofit partners before the bus arrived.

“Los Angeles is not a city motivated by hate or fear and we absolutely will not be swayed or moved by petty politicians playing with human lives. We are a city that seeks to treat all people with dignity and compassion and we will continue to work closely with nonprofit organizations, including the L.A. Welcomes Collective, as well as with our county, state and federal partners.

“For everything that we do, we will continue to lock arms and we will continue to lead. And we will always put people’s health and well being over politics.”

The immigrants were taken to St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church in Chinatown, and Los Angeles Fire Department crews responded to ensure none of them had any medical issues. Representatives from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights also responded to offer assistance for the immigrants, who were believed to have been on the bus for nearly 24 hours.

Earlier Wednesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office sent public records requests to the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Division of Emergency Management seeking information about the recent transport of two groups of immigrants from Florida to northern California.

Bonta said his office is investigating whether any laws were broken by Florida in shipping the three dozen migrants to Sacramento. Gov. Gavin Newsom has suggested DeSantis could potentially face kidnapping charges for transporting the migrants to California, although Florida officials have insisted the migrants went to Florida voluntarily and signed documents agreeing to the travel.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Newsom or Bonta about the Texas migrants bused to Los Angeles.

According to Abbott’s office, Texas has been charting buses to take migrants from Texas to locations including Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia, and most recently adding Denver to the list of destinations. Since beginning the busing effort last spring, more than 21,600 migrants have been shipped out of Texas to “these self-declared sanctuary cities,” according to Abbott’s office.

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