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More buses carrying asylum seekers from Texas arrived Friday in Philadelphia in a move orchestrated by Texas’ governor, who says it’s meant to highlight inaction on immigration by President Joe Biden, but which critics have characterized as a political stunt.
The two buses that arrived Friday at 30th Street Station included around 80 people of all ages, including families, according to NBC10’s Miguel Martinez-Valle, who witnessed the buses arriving. Organizations and officials were on hand to greet them.
NBC10 cameras captured mothers carrying babies. Some of the migrants stepped off the buses in short sleeved t-shirts, unprepared for temperatures that were around the low-40 degrees at the time of their arrival, They were given blankets with which to wrap themselves.
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“These are folks who have reached the legal definition of asylum. Many of them have been traveling for months – two months is what we’ve heard is like the most common timeframe,” said Erika Guadalupe Núñez, the executive director of the Juntos community organization. “And I think something that’s really critical to know is that Philadelphia has made a really solid intention to be a welcoming city so that folks arriving, regardless of what they’ve had to deal with over the last two months, they know that they’re welcome here and that there’s folks who are going to support them.”
The migrants were from countries including Colombia, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, said Emilio Buitrago of the Casa de Venezuela group, which is has been helping newly arrived asylum-seekers.
The city has been partnering with community organizations ever since the first busload of migrants arrived on Nov. 16. More people arrived Monday. Migrants are offered shelter, medical aid and legal screening, food and clothes said. For many, their final destination is not Philadelphia, so they are also given transport support. Many are headed to New Jersey and New York and even Ohio, according to Núñez.
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Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has faced criticism over buses that suddenly turned up in New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Abbott sent the buses to Democratic-led cities as a way to maximize exposure over what he says is inaction by the Biden administration over high numbers of migrants crossing on the southern border.
Critics, though, say it is a political stunt. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney has welcomed the migrants but said that it is “downright irresponsible and callous to do this unannounced and without coordination, showing blatant disregard for the sanctity of human lives.”
On Friday, a city spokesman told NBC10 that Texas officials have not coordinated migrant arrivals with Philadelphia despite a request to do so from the city's Office of Emergency Management.
“The busing tactic that Gov. Abbot is using, I think it’s intentionally meant to be divisive. I think it’s intentionally meant to be a political stunt that targets sanctuary cities,” Núñez said. “And I think part of it is he is expecting cities to fail, and I think there’s like the myth of scarcity – that we don’t have enough resources to go around to welcome immigrant communities – and that’s actually just not true. Resources do exist, communities who are willing to do welcoming do exist.”
