UNITED STATES. Texas: Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, said on Wednesday night that his state had sent a busload of migrants to Los Angeles for assistance. This is the most recent move a right-wing governor has made to relocate those in need to a district under Democratic control.
Abbott tweeted, “Texas just dropped off the 1st bus of migrants in Los Angeles. Small Texas border towns remain overrun & overwhelmed because Biden refuses to secure the border. LA is a city migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its leaders have approved its self-declared sanctuary status.”
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, said that over 40 people were transferred from Texas. It is heinous that an American elected official uses human beings as pawns in his petty political games, according to the LA mayor.
Abbott’s spokesperson, who claimed in a tweet that it was “the 1st bus” going to LA, didn’t respond to inquiries on Wednesday night. The group arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles, a significant transportation hub, according to media reports, which also stated that a human rights organisation drove them to a nearby church. The origin of the migrants wasn’t immediately apparent.
According to Bass, after taking office last year, she instructed city agencies to start preparing for the possibility that LA “was on the receiving end of a despicable stunt that Republican Governors have grown so fond of.”
“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 was already mobilised along with nonprofit partners before the bus arrived,” according to Bass.
Abbot has been under fire for his busing programme, which over the past year is said to have sent tens of thousands of migrants to cities including Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, DC, as well as at one time dropping them off by the vice president’s house, Kamala Harris.
Last year, he sent a bus to Philadelphia with a 10-year-old child on board who was dehydrated, had a high fever, and required hospitalisation. Immigrant rights organisations have denounced the practice as cruel and exploitative for weak individuals who are looking for shelter and protection.
Without consulting local authorities, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, flew some 50 South American migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, last year. According to the Texas Tribune, the Republican candidate for president has spent more than $1.5 million on the flights.
A Texas sheriff’s office announced on Monday that it had suggested filing criminal charges in connection with the Martha’s Vineyard flights, claiming that the migrants had been “lured under false pretences.”
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has also threatened to file abduction charges against DeSantis after the latter recently transferred migrants to Sacramento, the state’s capitol.
The announcement comes in the wake of recent reports indicating that the number of migrants entering the country across the southern border is at its lowest level since Joe Biden assumed office and that the population surge that some had anticipated would happen after the lifting of pandemic restrictions has not taken place.
“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. 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,” according to Bass.
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