New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday that he is suing 17 charter bus and transportation companies that have been helping to transport unlawful migrants from Texas.
The busing program has resulted in more than 33,600 unlawful migrants being transported to the self-described sanctuary city since August 2022, according to a press release from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office.
Adams discussed the lawsuit in a press release, claiming that “Abbott has admitted to facilitating the transport” of the unlawful migrants “without having the companies transporting those migrants pay for the cost of continued care in violation of New York’s Social Services Law.”
New York City is seeking roughly $708 million from the companies to help recoup the costs of caring for the people who have arrived in the city on the buses.
Adams said in the press release that the lawsuit should “serve as a warning” for those who break the law.
“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,” he said.
“Governor Abbott’s continued use of migrants as political pawns is not only chaotic and inhumane but makes clear he puts politics over people,” he claimed.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul echoed these comments and accused Abbott of using “human beings as political pawns,” adding that “it’s about time that the companies facilitating his actions take responsibility for their role in this ongoing crisis.”
“If they are getting paid to break the law by transporting people in need of public assistance into our state, they should be on the hook for the cost of sheltering those individuals — not just passing that expense along to hard-working New Yorkers,” she argued, per the press release. “I’m proud to support the mayor’s lawsuit.”
Abbott responded to the filing by saying the lawsuit was “baseless and deserves to be sanctioned.”
“It’s clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution or about the constitutional right to travel that has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Abbott in a press release sent to The Dallas Express.
Abbott explained these rights while appearing on Newsmax’s Eric Bolling The Balance on Thursday, and he claimed that New York City was going to “lose and lose badly.”
“Once the Biden administration has authorized these migrants to be in the United States, they have the Constitutional right to travel to New York City,” he said.
The busing program first began in response to an influx of unlawful migrants at the southern border, with record numbers of encounters being reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The most recent record-breaking month came in December when CBP reported more than 300,000 encounters at the southern border, shattering the previous record of 269,735 encounters in September.
In addition to the buses sent to New York City, the program has transported more than 59,000 unlawful migrants to five other sanctuary cities across the country since April 2022.
A recent escalation of the program also involved the flying of unlawful migrants to Chicago, with more than 400 people being flown to the city across two separate flights.
