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karen bass
'Playing With Human Lives': Los Angeles Mayor Rips GOP Texas Gov. Over Migrant Stunt
"It is abhorrent that an American elected official is using human beings as pawns in his cheap political games," Karen Bass said of Greg Abbott.
Jun 15, 2023
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday night announced that his state had dropped off its "first" busload of migrants in Los Angeles, the latest move by a right-wing governor to ship vulnerable asylum-seekers to a distant Democratic-led jurisdiction.
"It is abhorrent that an American elected official is using human beings as pawns in his cheap political games," the city's progressive mayor, Karen Bass, said in a statement condemning Abbott.
The arrival of 42 migrants, including eight children, at L.A. Union Station "did not catch us off guard, nor will it intimidate us," said Bass. "Shortly after I took office, I directed city departments to begin planning in the event Los Angeles was on the receiving end of a despicable stunt that Republican governors have grown so fond of."
"Now, it's time to execute our plan," she added. "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 nonprofit partners before the bus arrived."
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, communications director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights-Los Angeles (CHIRLA), was at Union Station when the bus arrived from McAllen, Texas. He told the Los Angeles Times that the passengers were forced to endure a 23-hour bus ride without food.
"Los Angeles is not a city motivated by hate or fear, and we absolutely will not be swayed or moved by petty politicians playing with human lives."
It remains unclear whether everyone aboard made the trip voluntarily or knew the final destination of the bus. Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said her team is working to determine whether migrants provided informed consent or were unlawfully detained.
Cabrera said CHIRLA "had been tipped off Tuesday night about the migrants' pending arrival," the Times reported. "He said the travelers originated from Venezuela, Guatemala, and Honduras, with two of African descent. One of the Guatemalan migrants has a court date scheduled in New York, he added."
"That's where the cruelty of this process is unbounded," Cabrera explained. "That's why Los Angeles made sure that we were coordinated and prepared to deal with the human beings behind this political charade."
The migrants were taken to a welcoming center at a nearby church, where they were able to rest, eat, and speak with attorneys. As Cabrera put it, "We know that they're traumatized and they need a number of services."
Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez (D-1) said that "the church was serving as a triage center, with nonprofit organizations and the Community Investment for Families Department among those on hand," the Times reported. "Hernandez said migrants were getting services, and some were being connected with relatives."
According to the newspaper, "The city's Emergency Operations Center was activated Wednesday afternoon to assist in coordinating city, county, and state partners, along with local community organizations."
\u201cThis evening, more than 40 people were sent by the Governor of Texas to our City of Los Angeles.\n\nShortly after I took office, I directed City Departments to begin planning for an event like this.\n\nThis did not catch us off guard.\n\nWe are now executing our plan. 1/3\u201d— Mayor Karen Bass (@Mayor Karen Bass) 1686795379
Hernandez noted that "months-old babies" were among those put on the bus by Abbott. The people involved "were essentially dehumanized," said Hernandez. "They were used by a weak politician as a political stunt."
Her fellow councilmember, Kevin De León (D-14), also denounced Abbott for engaging in "heartless exploitation." While the move was "not shocking," the city official said in a statement, it reflects "a tremendous lack of leadership."
Abbott has previously come under fire for his interstate migrant busing scheme. Since it was launched in April 2022, more than 21,600 people have been transported from Texas to Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and now Los Angeles.
In a statement, Abbott claimed that "Texas' small border towns remain overwhelmed and overrun... because of President Joe Biden's refusal to secure the border."
Data released earlier this month showed that unauthorized crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border are at their lowest point since the start of the Biden administration.
"We are a city that seeks to treat all people with dignity and compassion."
Since the White House imposed new asylum restrictions that went into effect when Title 42 ended on May 11, the number of people stopped by Border Patrol each day has plummeted from more than 10,000 to roughly 3,000. In addition, the number of people waiting in northern Mexico prior to immigrating to the U.S. appears to be falling.
Undermining Abbott's dubious accusations of inaction at the border, immigrant rights groups have condemned Biden's crackdown on asylum-seekers, saying the president's new ban deepens the bipartisan abandonment of international human rights law set in motion by the Trump administration.
Abbott is not the only far-right governor to dump migrants in Democratic-led jurisdictions in the past year.
Last September, Florida governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis organized flights of nearly 50 South American asylum-seekers from San Antonio, Texas to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, prompting a lawsuit and a criminal investigation into whether people were "lured... under false pretenses." The Bexar County Sheriff's Office recently recommended criminal charges over the Martha's Vineyard flights.
After DeSantis flew additional migrants to Sacramento earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) threatened to slap the "small, pathetic man" with kidnapping charges.
Abbott, for his part, vowed Wednesday to continue shipping people across the country, saying that "Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status."
In response, Bass said: "Los Angeles is not a city motivated by hate or fear, and we absolutely will not be swayed or moved by petty politicians playing with human lives. We are a city that seeks to treat all people with dignity and compassion."
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'When We Fight, We Win!': LA School Workers Secure Deal After 3-Day Strike
"The agreement addresses our key demands and sets us on a clear pathway to improving our livelihoods and securing the staffing we need to improve student services," said SEIU Local 99.
Mar 25, 2023
Union negotiators for about 30,000 school support staffers in California's Los Angeles County struck a historic deal with the second-largest district in the United States on Friday after a three-day strike.
Members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, special education assistants, teaching aides, and other school staff—backed by about 35,000 educators of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA)—walked off the job on Tuesday and continued to strike through Thursday.
The tentative contract agreement, which must still be voted on by SEIU Local 99 members, was reached with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) after mediation from Democratic Mayor Karen Bass.
The deal would increase the average annual salary from $25,000 to $33,000, raise wages by 30%, boost the district minimum wage to $22.52, provide a $1,000 Covid-19 pandemic bonus, secure healthcare benefits for part-time employees who work at least four hours a day, and guarantee seven hours of work for special education assistants.
"The agreement addresses our key demands and sets us on a clear pathway to improving our livelihoods and securing the staffing we need to improve student services," SEIU Local 99 said in a statement. "It was members' dedication to winning respect from the district that made this agreement possible."
The Los Angeles Times reports that during a Friday news conference at City Hall with Bass and Alberto Carvalho, the LAUSD superintendent, Local 99 executive director Max Arias declared that "here in California this agreement will set new standards, not just for Los Angeles, but the entire state."
"I want to appreciate the 30,000 members that sacrificed three days of work, despite low income, to raise the issue to society, that we as a society need to do better for all workers, all working people, for everyone," Arias added.
While the strike meant about 400,000 K-12 students weren't in classes for three days this week, "many parents stood in support of union employees," according to KTLA, with one local parent saying that "it's obvious all over the schools that we're really not putting the support where it's needed and our children are suffering because of that."
In a series of tweets, Local 99 thanked people from across the country for their solidarity this past week and stressed that the LA mayor, who has no formal authority over LAUSD, "was instrumental to getting the district to finally start hearing our demands."
Bass, in a statement, thanked Arias and Carvalho "for working together with me to put our families first" and emphasized that "we must continue working together to address our city's high cost of living, to grow opportunity, and to support more funding for LA's public schools, which are the most powerful determinant of our city's future."
Carvalho said Friday that "when we started negotiating with SEIU, we promised to deliver on three goals. We wanted to honor and elevate the dignity of our workforce and correct well-known, decadeslong inequities impacting the lowest-wage earners. We wanted to continue supporting critical services for our students. We wanted to protect the financial viability of the district for the long haul. Promises made, promises delivered."
Contract talks with district teachers are ongoing. When announcing support for Local 99's strike earlier this month, UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz said that "despite LAUSD having one of the largest school budgets and largest reserves in the nation—teachers and essential school workers are struggling to support their own families and live in the communities they work for."
The strike and pending deal in California come amid a rejuvenated labor organizing movement across the United States, with employees of major corporations including Amazon and Starbucks fighting for unions.
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