The mayor of Los Angeles has slammed Texas Governor Greg Abbott for sending a bus carrying migrants to the city as it braced for the worst of Tropical Storm Hilary.

The bus departed Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday and arrived at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles on at 6:45 p.m. on Monday, Mayor Karen Bass’ office said.

In a statement, Bass said she had been warning city residents to prepare for Hilary’s impact when the bus departed Texas.

Hilary slammed into Mexico’s Baja California peninsula as a hurricane on Sunday before becoming a tropical storm and moving across the border. The first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, Hilary brought record rainfall to the state and caused significant flooding in some areas.

“It is evil to endanger the lives of vulnerable migrants by sending a bus with families and toddlers on board to a city that at the time was under an unprecedented tropical storm warning,” Bass said on Monday.

“As I stood with state and local leaders warning Angelenos to stay safe and brace themselves for the worst of the coming storm, the Governor of Texas sent families and toddlers straight for us on a path through extreme weather conditions.”

Bass said that if anybody understands the danger of hurricanes and thunderstorms, it’s the Republican governor “who has to deal with this threat on an annual basis.”

“This is a despicable act beyond politics,” she added.

Bass also called out Abbott in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“This evening, Los Angeles received another bus from Texas,” she wrote. “That means that while we were urging Angelenos to stay safe, the Governor of Texas was sending a bus with families and toddlers straight towards us KNOWING they’d have to drive right into an unprecedented storm. Evil.”

Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris told Newsweek that bus drivers “receive updated weather conditions along their routes and for their destination ahead of and while en route to the sanctuary cities.”

The bus “rerouted out of an abundance of caution and took a cautious path to Los Angeles to keep all on board safe,” he said.

He added: “Migrants willingly chose to go to Los Angeles, having signed a voluntary consent waiver available in multiple languages upon boarding that they agreed on the destination. And they were processed and released by the federal government, who are dumping them at historic levels in Texas border towns because of the Biden-made crisis.”

Mahaleris said each bus “is stocked with food and water and makes stops along the trip to refuel and switch drivers.” Those on board are allowed to purchase any needed provisions or disembark at any of these stops, he said.

“Instead of complaining about Texas providing much-needed relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities, Mayor Bass needs to call on President Biden to step up and do his job to secure the border—something he continues failing to do,” he added.

The bus was the ninth carrying migrants that has arrived in Los Angeles this year, according to the mayor’s office. City agencies and a coalition of nonprofit organizations are caring for them as part of a plan set in place earlier this year.

The mayor’s office has also been contacted for further comment via email.

Abbott began sending busloads of migrants to Democrat-run cities, including New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C., last year as part of his multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico, known as Operation Lone Star. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, has also been sending migrants to Democratic states.

He faced criticism after 42 migrants, including children, arrived in Los Angeles in June following a 23-hour ride without any food or water.

Abbott defended the move at the time, saying the migrants were sent to Los Angeles because city leaders had approved its “self-declared sanctuary city status.”

“Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status,” Abbott said in a statement in June.

“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.”

Bass condemned the move at the time, accusing Abbott of “using human beings as pawns in his cheap political games.”

“This did not catch us off guard, nor will it intimidate us,” Bass said in a statement in June. “Los Angeles is not a city motivated by hate or fear and we absolutely will not be swayed or moved by petty politicians playing with human lives.”

Abbott also faced a backlash earlier this month after it was reported that a three-year-old boy died on a bus headed to Chicago.

Update 8/23/23, 3:46 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comment from Andrew Mahaleris.