There's more at the link.Greg Abbott decision to bus migrants to LA condemned as ‘despicable stunt’
Los Angeles mayor says Texas governor ‘using human beings as pawns’ amid reports migrants were not given food or drink on bus
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas’s decision to bus migrants to Los Angeles this week has been decried as a “despicable stunt”, as advocates in California reported that the group was not offered food during the 23-hour trip.
On Wednesday, 42 migrants, including 15 youth and three babies, arrived at Union Station in downtown LA, said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, the communications director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights-Los Angeles (Chirla), who met the group when they arrived. The travelers he spoke to came from Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti, and one came from China, he said, adding some told him they had been on the bus for nearly a day without any food or drink.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, where 16 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia were brought last Friday from Texas.
Abbott tweeted that it was the “1st bus of migrants” arriving in LA, claiming Texas border towns “remain overrun & overwhelmed because Biden refuses to secure the border”. Recent reports, however, have found that the number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border is at its lowest levels since the start of Joe Biden’s presidency. Abbott has faced increasing scrutiny for his bussing program over the last year, which has reportedly sent tens of thousands of migrants to Democratic-run cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington.
Immigrants’ rights groups have said the practice can be exploitative and cruel, noting last year that one bus Abbott sent to Philadelphia had a 10-year-old girl on it who had to be hospitalized from dehydration and a high fever. Last month, the governor sent buses to vice-president Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington.
LA councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said on Thursday several city agencies and nonprofits triaged the situation, offering health screenings, mental health care, connections to legal aid, assistance with family reunification and homeless services if needed.
“Our community organizations do this every single day, the only difference here is these migrants were used as a political stunt, transported to our city for political means,” she said. “This action by the governor of Texas is a reflection of how incapable he is of running a state, of meeting a crisis head-on. It’s just really pathetic. But Los Angeles is a place where we value and welcome everyone.”
LA mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that after she took office last year, she directed city agencies to plan for possible scenarios in which LA “was on the receiving end of a despicable stunt that Republican governors have grown so fond of”.
“This did not catch us off guard, nor will it intimidate us. Now, it’s time to execute our plan. Our emergency management, police, fire and other departments were able to find out about the incoming arrival while the bus was on its way and were already mobilized along with non-profit partners before the bus arrived,” she said.
Last time I checked, transporting unwilling people across state lines is kidnapping, whether you use force to get them in the vehicle or fraud. Since we'll all die of old age waiting for the Justice Department to press kidnapping or human trafficking charges, there's a simple and effective solution:
Governors and mayors who get migrants dumped on their doorsteps should arrest the drivers of these shipments on human trafficking charges and impound the buses. Rinse and repeat as necessary. No bus charter company wants to lose its vehicles -even temporarily as they try to get them back in court. No drivers want to get cuffed, either. This goes for flights, too. No air charter service wants their planes seized and pilots cuffed. Of course the drivers/pilots and flight coordinators can get out of trouble by testifying as to who hired them. Put out warrants for them, too.
Crying about the sadistic racism of Abbott and DeSantis only encourages more of it. Other MAGA pols will get into the act, too. Lock 'em up!
