CV NEWS FEED // Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday that his administration is suing over a dozen transportation companies that operated buses carrying an unprecedented number of migrants into New York City.
The lawsuit claims that Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott paid the bus companies to flood the city with migrants in order to fulfill a political aim.
“Today, we are taking legal action against 17 companies that have taken part in [Abbott’s] scheme to transport tens of thousands of migrants to New York City in an attempt to overwhelm our social services system,” Adams said in a statement the day of the suit.
“These companies have violated state law by not paying the cost of caring for these migrants,” he added. “[T]hat’s why we are suing to recoup approximately $700 million already spent to care for migrants sent here in the last two years by Texas.”
“[The companies’] implementation of [Abbott’s] plan is not part of a human-centered initiative to help individuals vindicate a constitutional right to travel within the United States,” the lawsuit stated.
It went on to allege that the 17 named defendants “knowingly implemented” the Texas governor’s “publicly-articulated plan … to shift to New York City and other urban areas the traditional cost of migration at the Southern Border so that they ‘wak[e] up to the reality that open border policies are failed policies.’”
The latter phrase appears to be a direct quote a December 19 post by Abbott’s on X (formerly Twitter).
“Democrats in Chicago & New York are waking up to the reality that open border policies are failed policies,” he wrote: “Texas began busing migrants to sanctuary cities to relieve our overwhelmed border towns. We’ll continue to do so until Biden secures the border.”
The case also alleged that the bus companies “have earned millions of dollars in revenues from Texas for implementing [Abbott’s] plan.”
“To earn this revenue, the companies have transported, or caused to be transported, individuals from Texas to New York City and other urban areas, including Chicago, the District of Columbia, Philadelphia, and Denver,” the complaint continued:
On December 29, 2023, [Abbott] announced the results to date of the Defendants’ implementation of his plan – so far busing tens of thousands of individuals to what he calls ‘sanctuary cities,’ including ‘over 33,600 migrants to New York City.’ The Defendants have also bussed over 28,000 such individuals to Chicago, 12,500 to the District of Columbia, 13,800 to Dever, 3,400 to Philadelphia, and 1,300 to Los Angeles.
“As testament to the ‘bad faith’ and ‘evil intent’ of the Defendants, they are receiving more for their services than it would cost to buy a one-way ticket from Texas to New York City on a regularly-scheduled bus,” the suit further alleged. “The Defendants receive roughly $1,650 per person on chartered bused compared to $291 for a single one-way ticket.”
As FOX News indicated: “The lawsuit argues that the companies have violated New York state law by not paying for the cost of caring for migrants, and seeks $708 million in damages that it has already spent on caring for them.”
The plaintiff listed in the case is New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, whom Adams appointed to her post last year.
>> MIGRANTS ARRIVE IN NYC BY THE TRAINLOAD, DESPITE ADAMS’ ORDER <<
Late last month, the mayor issued an executive order in which he attempted to restrict the busing of migrants to the Big Apple.
This effort proved unsuccessful when reports surfaced days later that many bus drivers had apparently found a loophole. CatholicVote reported Tuesday that “large groups [of migrants] now pour into the city via train.”
The Hill explained that according to “New Jersey officials,” drivers were “dropping off the migrants at Secaucus Junction Train Station — about a 15-minute ride from New York City.”
Also on Tuesday, Adams stated at a press conference that “there were some migrants that participated in” the city’s “robbery pattern.”
“Do I believe that there are some migrants who are committing crimes in the city? Yes,” he said. “I think that we have a number of migrants who have committed crimes.”
Adams has been critical of the Biden administration’s response to the ongoing crisis at the nation’s southern border for the last several months. However, this has not always been the case.
When campaigning for mayor in 2021, he wrote on X (then known as Twitter): “New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration.”
From The Daily Wire’s Thursday reporting:
About 161,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have flooded into New York City since the spring of 2022, and about half of them are still in the city’s care. The crisis has forced the city to open new shelters and slash the budget of every city agency, even including police, public schools, and sanitation.
Adams predicted that the influx of migrants would cost the city as much as $12 billion.
>> BIDEN SUES TEXAS OVER LAW MAKING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION A CRIME <<
Abbott is currently fighting his own immigration-related lawsuit – against the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ announced its suit against Texas earlier this week. It is challenging SB 4, a law Abbott signed last month that seeks to make illegal immigration a crime in the state.
“Biden sued me today because I signed a law making it illegal for an illegal immigrant to enter or attempt to enter Texas directly from a foreign nation,” Abbott wrote on X Wedendsay.
“I like my chances,” he added. “Texas is the only government in America trying to stop illegal immigration.”
