CNN
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A bus carrying 41 migrants from Brownsville, Texas, arrived in Los Angeles Tuesday evening – the fourth such bus to arrive in the city in recent weeks, according to a nonprofit.
Among the passengers were six children ranging in age from 1 to 15 years old, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles said in a statement. About half of the migrants are from Venezuela and the others are from countries including Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras, it said.
The nonprofit believes the bus was funded by Texas state officials. CNN has reached out to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office for comment.
Abbott and Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have sent thousands of migrants to Democratic-led states in protest of the Biden administration’s immigration and border security efforts, which they have slammed as inadequate.
Gov. Abbott first sent migrants from Texas to Los Angeles on June 14, a move Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called a “political stunt.”
A spokesperson for Bass’ office confirmed the migrants’ arrival Tuesday and said the office became aware of the bus on Monday.
The arriving migrants were greeted by the immigration coalition and other community groups who provided them with food, hygiene kits, clothes and consultations with legal immigration attorneys, the coalition said. The migrants will be connected with loved ones or sponsors across the West Coast of the US, it said.
“We will do what we must to protect the dignity and safety of these families whenever they arrive,” the coalition’s executive director Angelica Salas said in a statement. “We will work together with other like-minded people and entities in Los Angeles to receive these asylum seekers with compassion and respect.”
Salas called on the Biden administration to provide protection to asylum seekers and increase funding for to nonprofits and community groups helping migrants “as we watch more and more buses arrive in California and other states.”
Gov. Abbott’s administration has sent more than 25,000 migrants to cities across the US, including Washington, DC, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles, according to a July 10 tweet from the governor. At the time, more than 80 migrants had been sent to Los Angeles, he said.
“We do not mistake these busing episodes as well-intentioned,” Salas said. “Texas and Florida have shown a callous disregard to the human experience, especially as it relates to asylum seekers with black and brown skin.”
“Busing migrants anywhere in the middle of a scorching summer is not kind, it is cruel and unjustified,” Salas said.