LA city council votes for lawsuit, criminal probe against Texas over migrant busing program

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The Los Angeles city council voted unanimously to pursue a lawsuit and criminal probe against Texas over its migrant busing program this week.

The Wednesday vote came just hours after the eleventh migrant bus since June arrived in the city's jurisdiction carrying 42 migrants. The council requested that the city attorney's office investigate whether Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had committed any crimes through the program, and whether there is justification for a lawsuit.

Abbott's program has delivered a total of 435 migrants to Los Angeles since buses started arriving on June 14. In all, the program has sent more than 30,000 migrants to Democrat-led cities across the country, including New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

"The competition between these Republican governors about who could be more racist, I think, is just an utter failure and shows clearly that they do not have any intention to govern effectively," Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES MAYOR ACCUSES ABBOTT OF BUSSING MIGRANTS FROM TEXAS TO CALIFORNIA DURING TROPICAL STORM HILARY

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to pursue a lawsuit and criminal probe against Texas over its migrant busing program this week. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

"The callous and disregard for lives of these families deserves their full investigation and accountability into the criminal actions of wrongdoing of Gov. Greg Abbott," he added.

Abbott's office highlighted L.A.'s status as a sanctuary city in a statement to Fox News Digital on Thursday. It also stated that migrants on the busses sign a multi-language consent waiver that states where their destination is.

"The LA City Councilmembers are complete hypocrites," Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. "In June, they unanimously voted to become a sanctuary city, welcoming migrants to the city. Texas began busing migrants to sanctuary cities like Los Angeles last year to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities."

"Instead of complaining about dealing with a fraction of the border crisis our small border towns deal with every day, the City Council should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border—something the President continues failing to do," he added.

Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have both engaged in sending migrants to other states. Abbott argues Texas is overrun with border crossers, and other states must help share the burden.

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New York City has received by far the most migrants from Texas in recent months, much to the anger of Mayor Eric Adams.

Abbott's program has delivered a total of 435 migrants to Los Angeles since busses started arriving on June 14. (KTTV)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has also expressed outrage with the program, saying there is virtually no communication from Texas officials.

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"We hear about the buses headed our way when they're on the way. We have no idea who's going to be on the bus, how many people it is or what condition they're going to be in when they get here," Bass said Wednesday. "Sometimes they haven't had any food, barely had enough water."