NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams is suing 17 Texas charter bus companies in his latest move to thwart Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's policy of busing thousands of migrants from his state's border to New York City.
The lawsuit seeks $708 million to cover the costs of caring for migrants transported to the city, the mayor said.
“New York City has and will always do our part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot bear the costs of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas alone,” Adams said in a video accompanying the announcement. “Texas Governor Abbott’s continued use of migrants as political pawns is not only chaotic and inhumane but makes clear he puts politics over people.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul expressed support for the lawsuit, accusing Abbott of using "human beings as political pawns" in a statement.
"It’s about time that the companies facilitating his actions take responsibility for their role in this ongoing crisis,” Hochul added.
The move comes a week after Adams announced an executive order restricting how charter buses can drop off migrants in the city. In it, he required bus companies to notify his administration 32 hours in advance and drop off migrants only between 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. on weekdays at a specific Manhattan location.
Last week’s order has already caused the bus companies, most of which are chartered by the state of Texas, to circumvent the new rules by dropping migrants off in areas outside New York City’s jurisdiction, such as Edison, N.J. and outside the weekday morning time frame. Since the order, migrants have been dropped off at “various NJ TRANSIT train stations,” a spokesperson for New Jersey’s Gov. Phil Murphy told POLITICO in a statement.
The lawsuit comes as Adams has continued to press federal officials for more migrant aid while blasting Abbott’s busing program as “cruel” and a “use of migrants as potential as political pawns.” It alleges the companies participated in "bad faith" conduct when they each "knowingly implemented Governor Abbott’s publicly articulated plan without any regard for the individuals they were transporting or an effort to help manage this humanitarian crisis," according to Adams' announcement.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has also criticized Abbott’s policies and issued a similar executive restricting migrant bus drop-offs. That order also led to chartered buses dropping migrants far outside Chicago city limits.
Separately, New York City has paid to transport asylum seekers to destinations outside the city. Between March and November, the city spent about $4.6 million to purchase more than 19,300 plane tickets for migrants seeking travel to other cities. A spokesperson for Adams claimed Abbott’s actions differ from the mayor’s because the Texas governor's program offers migrants little access to food, water and bathrooms and because the mayor's ticketing process intends to get migrants to their preferred destinations.
The governments of both Texas and New York City say the migrants are traveling willingly.
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