Migrants dropped at New Jersey train stations to avoid New York bus restrictions, NJ officials say

Hundreds of immigrants are being dropped off at New Jersey train stations to bypass new charter busing restrictions ordered by New York City Mayor Eric Adams who said previous migrant arrivals are overwhelming city services, New Jersey officials said.

Like many large cities across the country, New York has seen a significant surge in migrants arriving from the southern border, including thousands on buses chartered by Texas officials. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he has now dispersed nearly 100,000 migrants to Democrat-run cities nationally under Operation Lone Star.

In December, New York City recorded 14,700 migrant arrivals, including 14 buses in a single night. New York City officials said they've processed about 161,000 migrants over the past several months. Officials in New York, Chicago and Denver have been struggling to accommodate the migrants, many of whom are arriving with no support systems, housing or money, and overwhelming emergency shelters.

In New York, Adams last week issued an executive order restricting on where and when buses carrying migrants can drop off passengers in the city. Within days, bus drivers began dropping passengers at New Jersey train stations instead, officials said.

At least four buses transporting migrants destined for New York City arrived at the train station at Secaucus Junction, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli said Sunday. Secaucus police and town officials were told about the buses by Hudson County officials, the statement said. Officials say the migrants generally volunteer to ride the buses out of Texas.

“It seems quite clear the bus operators are finding a way to thwart the requirements of the executive order by dropping migrants at the train station in Secaucus and having them continue to their final destination,” Gonnelli said in a statement.

“Perhaps the requirements Mayor Adams put in place are too stringent and are resulting in unexpected consequences as it seems the bus operators have figured out a loophole in the system in order to ensure the migrants reach their final destination, which is New York City."

New Jersey State Police said it's been happening across the state, Gonnell said. A social media account associated with Jersey City reported that 10 buses from Texas and one from Louisiana have arrived at New Jersey train stations, including in Fanwood, Edison and Trenton. There were an estimated 397 migrants.

Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s office, said his administration has tracked a "handful" of buses with migrant families that arrived at "various NJ Transit train stations.”

"New Jersey is primarily being used as a transit point for these families — all or nearly all of them continued with their travels en route to their final destination of New York City,” Jones said, noting that the state is working with local and federal partners on the matter, including “our colleagues across the Hudson.”

Adams' order requires charter bus operators carrying migrants to alert officials at least 32 hours in advance, and limit drop-offs to weekday mornings in a specific location. Adams said middle-of-the-night drop-offs hurt migrants because they're arriving when there's few city services to immediately assist them.

"We need federal and state help to resettle and support the remaining 68,000 migrants currently in New York City’s care and the thousands of individuals who continue to arrive every single week..." Adams said in a statement.

Abbott, a Republican, launched the Operation Lone Star busing effort in April 2022, arguing self-declared sanctuary cities like New York, Chicago and Denver should help shoulder the burden of assisting migrants, instead of forcing Texas to pay for managing immigrants traveling across the southern border.

When announcing his busing restrictions last week, Adams accused Abbot of turning migrants into political pawns, particularly by sending them to northern cities without cold-weather clothing.

"Gov. Abbott has made it clear he wants to destabilize cities, sending thousands of migrants and asylum seekers here to the city," Adams said. "I have to navigate the city out of it."

New York City cracks downNYC, long a sanctuary city, will restrict buses carrying migrants from Texas