NYC, long a sanctuary city, will restrict buses carrying migrants from Texas

New York Mayor Eric Adams has introduced new restrictions on buses carrying migrants into the city in an effort to better cope with a flood of asylum seekers sent by the Texas governor.

Adams announced an executive order this week that will regulate how and when buses carrying migrants who are likely to need shelter and other emergency services can enter the city and drop off passengers.

"This is not stopping people from coming, but about ensuring the safety of migrants and making sure they can arrive in a coordinated and orderly way," Adams said Wednesday at a virtual press briefing with the mayors of Chicago and Denver.

Dozens of charter buses carrying migrants have been entering the city every week, including at night and on weekends when limited staff is available to help coordinate services for them, Adams said in the executive order. The buses also drop passengers off in random places in the city, the order said.

"(A) great many passengers on such charter buses have sought emergency shelter and other immediate services from the City," the order issued Wednesday says.

Thousands of migrants have been bused to New York and beyond

Charter buses carrying migrants into New York City will be required to give notice to the city's commissioner of emergency management at least 32 hours before arriving and will be restricted on times of day they can enter, according to the order. Violators could face class B misdemeanor charges, and Adams warned the city could impound buses.

Bus operators must notify the city of the number of people on board who are likely to seek emergency services, the executive order says. They will only be allowed to drop passengers off on weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and noon.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott promoted his migrant transportation program earlier this month, saying his state has bused more than 29,300 migrants to New York City since August 2022 and tens of thousands of others to Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

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A statement issued by Abbott’s press office said Operation Lone Star, the state's border enforcement program, “continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border.”

Mayors say Abbott is playing politics with people's lives

Democratic mayors contending with the unannounced arrivals of thousands of migrants – many of whom are unprepared for the cold weather and have nowhere to stay – say Abbott is playing politics instead of working with them to resettle the newcomers.

"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."

Adams has called the influx of migrants a "crisis" and accused Abbott of using them as "political pawns."

Chicago recently passed similar measures in an attempt to regulate buses of migrants entering the city, and suburbs then had to contend with buses dropping people off just outside the city, NBC Chicago reported.

New York City has had 7,200 migrants arrive in the city over the past two weeks, according to Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy. Last week, 14 "rogue" buses carrying migrants from Texas arrived in the city in one night, a record, Levy said.

Adams' administration has also been trying to transport migrants outside the city as the shelter system is strapped for space and resources. Earlier this year the city established a "reticketing center," offering free one-way tickets to arriving migrants anywhere in the world.

Adams has said the influx of migrants is anticipated to cost the city about $12 billion over the next three years.

The U.S.-Mexico border is seeing a historic wave of migrants, as tens of thousands of people migrate through the Western Hemisphere and people from diverse nations use Mexico to reach the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 240,000 encounters with migrants each in October and November, the first two months of fiscal 2024. Last year, CBP recorded more than 2.5 million migrant encounters at the Southwest border, a historical record.

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Contributing: The Associated Press