New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday announced the filing of a lawsuit against more than a dozen charter bus and transportation companies involved in busing migrants to New York City, accusing the government of failing to care for migrants in the self-described “sanctuary” city. Millions of dollars were demanded. ,
“New York City will always do its part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot alone afford the cost of reckless political moves from the state of Texas,” Adams said in a statement. “Today, we are taking legal action against 17 companies that have participated in Texas Governor Abbott’s plan to transport thousands of immigrants to New York City in an effort to overwhelm our social services system.”
The lawsuit argues that the companies violated New York state law by not paying for the costs of the migrants’ care, and seeks $708 million in damages for the money it has already spent on their care. It cites a New York law that states anyone who makes a public charge for the purpose of bringing a “needy person” out of the state must either transport them out of the state or support them.
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Adams said, “Governor Abbott’s use of immigrants as political pawns is not only lawless and inhumane, but it makes clear that he puts politics above people. Today’s lawsuit should serve as a warning to all those trying to Those who break the law in this way.”
Adams, who has been locked in a war of words with Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the past year over Abbott’s move to move migrants to “sanctuary cities”, recently announced an executive order barring charter transportation of migrants. Buses will be required to give 32 hours notice. His arrival in New York City.
The order also requires buses to arrive between 8:30 a.m. and 12 noon. Between Monday and Friday and drop off at a particular location.
But the buses appear to be avoiding that requirement by dropping off migrants at train stations in neighboring New Jersey, from where they can travel directly by train into New York City. Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli on Sunday accused migrant buses of bypassing New York City’s executive order through a “loophole.”
Adams was asked about the change in strategy Thursday and said the city will continue to enforce the executive order and that he has spoken to the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut.
“And we will continue to contact our partners in the region to say that everyone should set up a similar EO to send a strong message that these bus operators and bus companies are under Governor Abbott’s … Not participating is actually trying to destabilize these cities,” he said.
Adams fired another shot at Abbott over the buses. He said, “What he is doing is being dogmatic about destabilizing these cities. And we must rise to his challenge.”
Adams also received support for the lawsuit from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said the companies are held accountable “for their role in this ongoing crisis.”
“If they are being paid to break the law by transporting people who need public assistance across our state, they should be paying the cost of sheltering those individuals — not just the hard-working New Yorkers who foot that expense.” “I’m proud to support the mayor’s lawsuit,” she said.
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Meanwhile, Abbott has rejected the criticism he heard from Adams and other Democratic mayors, saying he is bussing in migrants to help besieged Texas communities. The state says it has transported more than 95,000 migrants to “sanctuary” cities, which Abbott recently noted is “just a fraction of the difficulties Texas border towns face every day.”
There were more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in FY23, and officials told lawmakers last month that they were releasing an average of 5,000 people into the US per day. On Thursday he said New York City’s lawsuit “is baseless and deserves to be sanctioned”.
“It is clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution or about the constitutional right to travel recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court. Every immigrant who buses or flies into New York City does so voluntarily.
Authorized by the Biden Administration to remain in the United States after leaving,” he said. “Thus, he has a constitutional right to travel across the country that Mayor Adams is interfering with. “If the mayor persists in this lawsuit, he could be held legally responsible for his violations.”
