A bus carrying 28 migrants from Texas arrived in Philadelphia on Wednesday, including a 10-year-old girl suffering from dehydration and a high fever who was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Advocates who welcomed the migrants with coats and blankets before dawn on a cold and drizzly morning said the families and individuals came from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The city and several non-profit groups were ready to provide food, temporary housing and other services.

“In general, people feel relieved,” said one Philadelphia city councilmember, Helen Gym, who accompanied several of the migrants onto a second bus taking them to a site where their needs could be assessed.

“We want them to know that they have a home here. There’s a 10-year-old who’s completely dehydrated. It’s one of the more inhumane aspects that they would put a child who was dehydrated with a fever now, a very high fever” on the bus, Gym said. “It’s a terrible situation.”

The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, announced on Tuesday that Philadelphia would be the next destination for migrants the state is transporting by the thousands to Democratic-led areas.

Advocates who greeted the group in Philadelphia, which included 21 adults, said it was not clear how long the bus journey took. One said it would typically take about 40 hours.

“The important thing is they got to Philadelphia, and they were received with open arms,” said Emilio Buitrago of the non-profit Casa de Venezuela. “The kids are frightened, they’re exhausted, they’re tired. They’re going to go to a place … where they’re going to have comfy, warm beds with a blanket, and warm food. From there, we’re going to work on relocation.”

Some families hope to unite with relatives or friends in other locations, Gym said.

US officials stopped more than 2m illegal border crossings in the last fiscal year, a record high that reflects deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries along with the relative strength of the US economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.

In the fiscal year that ended on 30 September, migrants at the US border were stopped 2.38m times, up 37% from 1.73m times the year before.

Other buses have turned up in recent months in New York, Washington and Chicago. Texas has transported more than 13,000 migrants since April. Abbott has sent the buses to Democratic-led cities as a way to maximize exposure over what he says is inaction by the Biden administration regarding the southern border.

Critics have called the buses a cruel political stunt, but last week voters rewarded Abbott with a record-tying third term as Texas governor in his race against the Democrat Beto O’Rourke. Abbott made a series of hardline immigration measures the centerpiece of his campaign.

Nearly six in 10 Texas voters favored Abbott’s decision to send migrants to northern cities, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of almost 3,400 voters in the state.

In a statement announcing the bus trips to Philadelphia, Abbott’s office said the Philadelphia mayor, Jim Kenney, “has long celebrated and fought for sanctuary city status, making the city an ideal addition to Texas’ list of drop-off locations”.

Kenney said: “It is truly disgusting to hear today that Governor Abbott and his administration continue to implement their purposefully cruel policy using immigrant families – including women and children – as pawns to shamelessly push his warped political agenda.”

Kenney said the city was working with more than a dozen local organizations to provide the migrants with shelter space, emergency health screening, food, water, language interpretation and more. Some will probably make their way to other states.

Arizona and Florida have also sent migrants to northern US cities.

Philadelphia has also welcomed waves of Ukrainians, Afghans and others in recent years. The people arriving from Texas are all in the US legally while they seek asylum, Kenney said.

“It is our duty to welcome and support these folks as they face some of the most trying times of their lives,” the mayor said. “At its core, this is a humanitarian crisis, that started with instability and violence in South and Central America and is being accelerated by political dynamics in our own country.”