Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sends busload of migrants to Los Angeles: ‘Border towns remain overrun and overwhelmed’

A bus filled with migrants arrived in Los Angeles from Texas on Wednesday as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to bring attention to the southern border by transporting migrants to left-leaning cities.

Abbott didn’t say how many migrants were taken to California’s largest city, but noted that the LA has been run as a so-called “sanctuary city” for years. 

“Texas just dropped off the 1st bus of migrants in Los Angeles,” Abbott said in a news release. “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 its leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary status.”

A bus with around 30 people was dropped off at St. Anthony’s Croatian Church in Chinatown, FOX Los Angeles reported. 

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Families from Latin America and Haiti were welcomed by several people and organizations. They are expected to be transferred to shelter locations. 

Abbott has taken a more aggressive approach to border enforcement than his fellow governors and has made the transportation of migrants to Democratic-run cities a part of his effort to secure the border and provide relief for border towns with scarce resources.

Many have been taken to Chicago, New York City, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia where officials there have had to scramble to accommodate the thousands of migrants being sent there. 

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New York Mayor Eric Adams was criticized earlier this month when he suggested that migrants should be housed in private residences with spare rooms. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Texas has transported 21,600 migrants have been transported to self-declared sanctuary cities since last spring when the busing strategy began. 

The move by Abbott came as California Gov. Gavin Newsom floated the idea of the prosecution of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also seeking the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race. 

Last week, some migrants were flown from Florida to Sacramento, California, in a private aircraft with transportation arranged by the state of Florida, Amelia Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said last week.  

California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta is looking into potential “kidnapping” charges against DeSantis.

 

Newsom said he recently met with Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, to “compare notes” on possible criminal charges against DeSantis. In September 2022, 49 migrants traveled from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a trip funded by the state of Florida. 

“I find it not only disgraceful, I think there’s grounds, not only to investigate but to potentially initiate some form of accountability,” Newsom told FOX Los Angeles. “The Sheriff wants to see that from the D.A. in Texas, and we’re pursuing that with the Department of Justice in this state.”