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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fifth bus of migrants sent from Texas arrives in Los Angeles

The group of migrants from Brownsville, Texas, arrive at St. Anthony's Croatian Catholic Church on Thursday, July 13, 2023, in Los Angeles. Another bus carrying 44 migrants from Texas arrived at Union Station Saturday morning, July 22, 2023, the fifth such busload sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in just more than a month, according to Los Angeles officials. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/TNS)  (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
By Ruben Vives Los Angeles Times

A bus carrying 44 migrants from Texas arrived at Union Station Saturday morning, the fifth such busload sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in just over a month, according to Los Angeles officials.

The bus of migrants arrived in downtown Los Angeles from Brownsville, Texas, around 11:30 a.m. where they were met by members of the L.A. Welcome Collective, which includes the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Central American Resource Center-Los Angeles, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and others.

The move by the Texas governor comes just four days after another bus he sent – carrying 44 migrants from Venezuela, China, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Chile and Brazil – arrived at Union Station from Brownsville.

“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” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “As we have before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan.”

The three other buses arrived on June 12, July 1 and July 13 carrying, respectively, 42, 41 and 30 migrants.

Texas has funded the transport of more than 22,000 migrants to Democratic-run cities across the U.S., including New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver and Philadelphia, as part of Abbott’s protest against federal immigration policies. So far, he’s raised $415,397 in donations to help pay for the transfer of migrants, according to the governor’s website.