Imagine. Weekly, if not daily, plane loads of migrants sent by GOP governors to L. A. and other major Democratic-run cities, to disrupt and overrun the infrastructures and economies of those communities — from healthcare and housing to food provision and schools, from social services and welfare to public safety and law enforcement..
By TONY CASTRO
LOS ANGELES MAYOR KAREN BASS’ MOST petrifying words about the future of her city haven’t been about the rise in violent crime, widsoread homelessness, skyrocketing living costs, nor of any other nagging problem that has made Angelenos fearful in the past.
They were words spoken in public but they were effectively lost in the deafening cacophony of seemingly endless news cycles, podcasts, social commentary, talk radio, and streaming television, not to mention the early ramp up building toward next year’s presidential election.
Early last month, at an event for the news site Axios, Bass said she is “fearful that any day” planes of migrants could be sent to L.A., as Republican governors continue to transport migrants to Democratic-run cities.
“What they’re trying to do is destabilize cities … it’s the narrative that these are Democratic-run cities,” she said, “and that we don’t know how to govern and that everything is chaotic here.
“We live in a city that welcomes immigrants, and so I think we have been able to handle it, but I am fearful that any day planes could start coming.
“This is just setting the stage for the presidential election next year.”
Imagine. Weekly, if not daily, plane loads of migrants sent by Republican governors to Los Angeles, and presumably other major Democratic-run cities, presumably to disrupt and overrun the infrastructures and economies of those communities — from healthcare and housing to food provision and schools, from social services and welfare to public safety and law enforcement.
By the end of September, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had sent the 20th bus of migrants to Los Angeles since June in what appears to be an ongoing campaign to test the city’s social safety nets while also challenging President Biden’s border policies.
But could that be part of the GOP’s 2024 strategy that Bass fears? If it is, Los Angeles isn’t folding.
According to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights — known locallyby its acronym CHIRLA — more than 434,000 migrants have arrived in California since 2019, the majority of them in Los Angeles and Southern California. That number is the size of a medium size city: Long Beach, Tucson, Kansas City, Oklahoma City.
It is also not far from the estimated half a million immigrants’ rights supporters who packed the streets of Los Angeles from downtown to Beverly Hills in 2006 in an unprecedented and historic protest. Since then, the United States has become home to the largest immigrant population in the world.
But even as immigrants assimilate faster in the U. S. compared to developed European nations, immigration policy has become a highly contentious issue in America. It was a signature of the Trump presidency, marked by harsh rhetoric and cruel immigration policies and proposals — family separations, deportation of U.S.-born children, forced migrant busing, military invasion of Mexico, deadly razor wire on the Rio Grande, the outright killing of migrants and ending birthright citizenship.
And it is GOP hard-lining expected to heighten in the coming year as the issue of immigration and border security looms large in the 2024 election. Republicans have made it evident they intend to campaign on immigration, weaponizing the issue against President Joe Biden and the Democrats. That became clear in last week’s draconian rhetoric during the second GOP presidential debate.
The day before the 20th bus of migrants arrived from Texas, three busloads with 109 migrants preceded it, leading the mayor to note that “Governor Abbott continues to put vulnerable lives in jeopardy with limited food and water on multi-day bus journeys to Los Angeles.”
“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,” said mayoral spokesperson Zach Seidl. As we have before, when we became aware of the bus, we activated our plan.”
On X, formerly Twitter, CHIRLA confirmed the arrival of 27 asylum-seekers on the 20th bus from Texas last Saturday with no children. It did not specify from which nations they had come.
While the collective expected 109 migrants to arrive Friday, it only assisted 65, citing that some of the migrants may have been picked up by family members or sponsors, or some left immediately upon their arrival at Union Station.
Of the 65 migrants, 16 were children and there were 35 family-units, meaning migrants who traveled with a spouse, partner, a child or children. Additionally, 36 were female and 29 were male.
According to the CHIRLA, which is a member of the L.A. Welcomes Collective, a network of nonprofit, faith groups and city and county services that respond to the arrival of migrant buses, a third of all migrants arriving in Los Angeles by bus have been children.
“When migrants arrive in California … we receive them, integrate them into society, and they in turn contribute positively to our way of life. The Golden State is an immigrant state and that will not change,” CHIRLA posted on X.
The Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice, another member of the collective, wrote on X that its office learned of two of Friday’s buses early Friday morning. The lack of information resulted in “stretching our resources for greeting people with dignity and respect, helping them reunite with family and connect with sponsors,” according to CLUE Justice.
“It is abhorrent and cruel of Gov. Abbott to send human beings who are tired, hungry and yearning for a safe haven on a 30-hour bus ride without regard for their care, journey or destination,” CHIRLA wrote on X. “It is clear he is trying to disrupt our efforts, but we will persevere.”
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, director of communications for CHIRLA, told City News Service that since June a third, 35% of migrants arriving on buses from Texas are children, which is one of many reasons the collective condemns Abbot’s actions.
Cabrera also noted some “folks (migrants) told us that L.A. was not their destination. They were just told to get on that bus. Many had not eaten in three days.”
In June, the Los Angeles City Council approved a motion seeking to formally establish the city as a sanctuary city. A month later, the city’s Police Commission approved a report providing details of the Los Angeles Police Department’s continued commitment to not enforce federal immigration law, as city officials prepare to bring forth an ordinance officially making L.A. a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants.
“Immigrants make up the very fabric of LA,” says City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, one of the driving forces to make Los Angeles a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. “Prohibiting the use of city resources for federal immigration enforcement shouldn’t depend on executive actions that can be overturned by a future administration. These are fundamental protections that should be enshrined in our laws.”
