Migrants from Texas arrive in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A group of migrants from the Texas border have arrived in Philadelphia. They traveled 1,900 miles to get here.
After arriving at 30th Street Station, these asylum seekers will be taken to a welcome center on Luzerne Street in North Philadelphia.
City officials say they've been preparing for their potential arrival for months and they've now activated a mass care plan.
They're working with multiple community-based organizations to provide housing, legal services and medical attention.
Councilmember Helen Gym was one of the city officials who welcomed the migrants first Tuesday morning.
"I want to say huge thank you to our advocates who were here first thing in the morning," Gym said. "They have been on the front lines of helping communities all across the city of Philadelphia. They deal with housing, they deal with education, they deal with, you know, making sure families are held together, and they deal with all of these situations from the get-go. We're incredibly lucky to have them."
Councilmember Gym also gave CBS3 an update on what she believes the final numbers to be. She thinks there were 28 migrants on board that bus, some of them were children.
She also mentions specifically one of them, a 10-year-old girl who showed up feeling under the weather. What kind of conditions these migrants would show up in was unclear. She believes that girl was dehydrated and feeling sick, but is expected to be OK.
CBS3 pressed the Democratic City Councilwoman about whether these migrants were vetted before arriving or whether she worries more migrants busloads may be on the way but she didn't want to engage with Gov. Abbot who she called a political attention seeker.
"I think he's saying anything he wants on Twitter to gain a certain amount of attention," Gym said. "Our city has grown, in part, thanks to immigrants, and that has been by the hundreds of thousands. And we need to be able to grow as a city."
CBS3 believes those migrants were taken to a welcome center in North Philadelphia where CBS3 was told they will be given necessary supplies such as food, shelter, and medical attention if necessary.
