Knowing San Antonio bus routes were imminently closing due to storms, ICE officials left 50 immigrant women and children at a bus station in the face of Hurricane Harvey on Friday.
As first reported by local San Antonio outlet Rivard Report, Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-San Antonio) knew of the bus line closures and requested that ICE not drop immigrants at the bus station. ICE officials assured him that all families would be dropped off in time to make their connections.
The women and children, fleeing violence in Central America, were asylum seekers and had been cleared to travel to meet families throughout the United States. Many had no money, and spoke no English.
According to Rivard Report,
“They’ve just gotten out of family detention centers and passed their credible fear interview so they were on their way to their families,” said Sister Denise LaRock, a member of the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, who aided the immigrants at the station.
...All the immigrants who were transferred to the San Antonio Greyhound bus station on Friday morning “had confirmed tickets and itineraries to their destinations,” an ICE spokesperson stated Sunday. “Throughout the process, ICE remained in close contact with bus officials to ensure bus availability, and all aliens had confirmed bus transportation at the time at which ICE officers departed the station. Ultimately, ICE kept two additional families in custody since their bus trip had been cancelled.”
The spokesperson declined to answer whether buses were running when the families were dropped off.
A local church agreed to shelter the families, along with nearly 100 others. As of Sunday, many families were able to depart for their destinations. Six families remained at the church.
Read more here.
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