EDITOR’S NOTE: Multimedia journalist Sarina Sandoval spoke with Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) about how the organization helped the migrants who were bused from Texas to LA. Click the arrow above to watch the video.
LOS ANGELES — The majority of the 42 migrants who were bused from South Texas to downtown Los Angeles Wednesday have been connected with friends and family in the area, and a small number are being provided with short-term housing assistance, according to LA’s Emergency Management Department.
They are also meeting with attorneys to determine their eligibility for asylum from their countries of origin, which include Honduras, Guatemala and Venezuela, according to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of LA.
“At the end of the day, that’s the most important part: Will they be able to normalize their status until their cases are individually reviewed by the federal authorities?” LA City Council member Kevin de León told Spectrum News.
De León represents downtown LA, where the 42 migrants arrived Wednesday afternoon after traveling 1,500 miles and 23 hours on a bus organized by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. In a statement, Abbott said he sent the migrants to LA because it’s “a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status.”
Last week, LA City Council passed a resolution directing the city attorney to draft a report on designating LA as a sanctuary city with laws protecting undocumented immigrants from deportation or persecution. While LA’s sanctuary status isn’t a done deal, de León expects Abbott to continue sending migrants to the city.
“Without a doubt,” he said. “Greg Abbott has demonstrated his hatred towards Latinos, towards immigrants in the state of Texas, so I’m not shocked he would send immigrants to a multi-culturally diverse city like LA,” which is 50% Latino.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management began chartering buses in April 2022 to transport migrants from Texas to Washington, D.C. It has since shipped migrants to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Denver. According to Abbott, he has transported more than 21,600 migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities in the U.S.
Florida has also started sending migrants to California, with two planes dropping off South American migrants in Sacramento. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is currently investigating whether those trips violated laws against kidnapping.
On Thursday, Bonta said his office is also looking into the legality of what the migrants from Texas were told before they boarded the bus to determine whether fraud or deception was involved.
“The legality question is an open one,” Bonta said Thursday. “We will go to wherever the facts and the law take us.”
Reactions to the bused migrants have been swift and uniform among city and state leaders.
“It is abhorrent that an American elected official is using human beings as pawns in his cheap political games,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “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.”
Since the migrants’ arrival, Bass’ office has been working with county, state and federal partners as well as multiple nonprofits.
The Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of LA was one of the groups that met the migrants at Union Station in downtown LA, having been tipped off about their arrival. Of the 42 migrants, eight are children between the ages of 2 and 9, according to CHIRLA. At least one is in diapers.