A seventh bus from Texas carrying asylum seekers arrived in Los Angeles Friday, organizers said.
A total of 49 migrants arrived at Union Station from Brownsville, Texas around 12:15 p.m, according to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ office.
“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,” a spokesman for Bass said in a statement. “As we have before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan.”
In total, 283 asylum seekers have arrived in Los Angeles this way, the L.A. Welcomes Collective indicated in a news release Friday.
The first bus carrying migrants from Texas arrived in Los Angeles on June 14, and five buses arrived in July.
“Los Angeles continues to open its heart and work collectively to give asylum seekers the refuge they deserve,” Angelica Salas, executive director of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “Our work is to help them find protection and a better life in the U.S., their new home. With this they will leave behind the suffering and any use of their plight for political agendas.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said that small border towns in Texas are “overwhelmed and overrun” by migrants.
“Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its…sanctuary city status,” Abbott said earlier this summer.
The busing of migrants started in April 2022 when Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to charter buses to transport migrants from Texas to Washington, D.C.
Since then, Abbott has added New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Denver as destinations.