EDITOR'S NOTE: Multimedia journalist Chace Beech spoke with the executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center about the fourth bus carrying migrants arriving in LA from Texas. Click the arrow above to watch the video.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles city and county agencies are responding Wednesday to a busload of immigrants that arrived in downtown Los Angeles from Texas, the fourth to come to Union Station since June 14.
A bus of migrants that originated in Brownsville, Texas arrived early Tuesday at Union Station, the second in six days, Mayor Karen Bass’ office reported.
“The city has continued to work with city departments, the county, and a coalition of nonprofit organizations, in addition to our faith partners, to execute a plan set in place earlier this year,” Zach Seidl, Bass’ director of communications said in a statement.
“As we have before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan.”
The bus arrived around 6:30 p.m., Seidl said.
The LA Welcome Collective said the immigrants were from Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Guetemala, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela. It was not announced how many people were on the bus.
The LA Welcome Collective, which is composed of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Central American Resource Center-Los Angeles, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Esperanza Immigration Rights Project, and Immigrant Defenders Law Center, issued a statement Wednesday regarding the latest group of immigrants to arrive in Los Angeles.
“The LA Welcomes Collective reiterates our commitment to work hand in hand with our City of Los Angeles and County of Los Angeles partners to receive and guide asylum seekers when they arrive,” the LA Welcome Collective said. “As a united front, we hope to serve as a beacon of hope to those seeking safe harbor as well as advocate for every human being be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of immigration status. Our purpose as non- profit organizations serving immigrants for decades is to help each Angeleno be fully integrated into society. We do not want to play politics with people’s lives. We will strive to do everything possible to maximize our limited resources until the busing of migrants stops or until we as a nation find a way to fix and improve a broken immigration system.”