LA mayor 'fearful' that planes of illegal aliens might arrive in city that 'welcomes immigrants'
LA boasts the label of 'sanctuary city' for illegal immigrants
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she is "fearful that any day" planes filled with illegal immigrants will be flown into the city.
During an event hosted by Axios on Thursday, Bass said, "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."
She added that the transportation of immigrants from border states and Florida to "sanctuary" juristictions "is just setting the stage for the presidential election next year."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The liberal city mayor's comments come as governors overrun by illegal immigration have sent busloads of migrants to cities like New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has already sent 13 busloads of migrants to Los Angeles — which touts itself as a sanctuary city — as part of Operation Lone Star.
Abbott continued to send buses as the city was hit by Tropical Storm Hilary, which Bass called "evil."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
"Our border communities are on the frontlines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much-needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border," Abbott said in a statement.
In June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis transported batches of migrants from border states to Sacramento. In the preceding fall, Florida also facilitated the travel of 49 Venezuelans to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy Massachusetts island.
Bass called the effort by Republican governors an attempt to "destabilize cities."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's the narrative that these are Democratic-run cities and that we don't know how to govern and that everything is chaotic here," Bass said during the event, Axios reported.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers discovered 18 illegal immigrants inside the bed of an 18-wheel tractor trailer. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
Illegal immigrants entering Los Angeles are reportedly coming from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2019, it was estimated that there were approximately 951,000 illegal immigrants residing in Los Angeles County, nearly 10% of the county's total population, marking the highest concentration of migrants in any U.S. county.
"What’s maddening is the fact that in New York and Chicago, in D.C. and LA, and other places, they put out policies self-proclaiming that they're sanctuary cities, and they love to promote these liberal ideologies until they have to actually live up and apply them," Abbott said recently on Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime. "It was clear that the policies of sanctuary cities and letting everybody live for free simply do not work. This is a day of reckoning for all of the United States, realizing that the liberal policies of open borders will not work in this country."
ARIZONA BORDER COUNTY BLINDSIDED AS BIDEN ADMIN ORDERS STREET RELEASE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Migrant bus from Texas to Los Angeles (KTTV)
Other cities with incoming migrants include Chicago and New York. On Friday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other Democrats were shouted down at a press conference in New York City regarding the illegal migrant crisis there.
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The Democrats, who spoke outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, which has become a relief center for more than 100,000 asylum seekers in the past year, were drowned out by shouting protesters chanting, "Send them back!" and "Close the border!"