New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) on Thursday announced he is suing more than a dozen bus and transportation companies that bused migrants to the city amid an ongoing debate over handling an influx of migrants at the southern border.
The city’s suit, filed against 17 charter companies, is seeking $708 million to cover the costs of caring for migrants sent to the Big Apple over the past 20 months.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) began sending buses carrying migrants who crossed the U.S. southern border to Democratic-led cities in April 2022 in protest of the Biden administration’s handling of the situation at the border. An estimated 33,600 migrants have been sent directly to New York City since Abbott began sending the buses, Adams’s office said.
“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,” Adams said in a statement. “Today, we are taking legal action against 17 companies that have taken part in Texas Governor Abbott’s scheme to transport tens of thousands of migrants to New York City in an attempt to overwhelm our social services system.”
Adams claimed these companies have violated state law by not covering the cost of care for the migrants, whom he says are being treated like “political pawns” by Abbott. The suit points to Section 149 of the New York Social Services law, which requires any “person who knowingly brings, or causes to be brought a needy person from out of state into this state for the purpose of making him a public charge … shall be obligated to convey such person out of state or support him at his own expense.”
The suit comes nearly a week after Adams issued an emergency executive order restricting migrant bus arrivals into the city. The order required bus operators who knew they were transportation migrants to the city with fares paid for by a “third party” to provide notice at least 32 hours ahead of their arrival.
Adams has repeatedly sounded the alarm over the past year, calling for more resources to help the city deal with the migrant influx, claiming the city does not have enough resources to deal with the influx of migrants.
The city has been under a state of emergency since October 2022 in the wake of the “unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Abbott on Thursday railed against what he called the “baseless” suit.
“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,” Abbott wrote in a statement. “Every migrant bused or flown to New York City did so voluntarily, after having been authorized by the Biden Administration to remain in the United States. As such, they have constitutional authority to travel across the country that Mayor Adams is interfering with.”
The governor argued that the suit should be sanctioned and Adams “may be held legally accountable for violations.”
Asked earlier in the day about the backlash from some city mayors in an an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co,” Abbott said “they should be embarrassed because it is utter hypocrisy.”
“For all — for one, all these mayors of sanctuary cities. And they say, ‘Oh, bring us your migrants,” Abbott continued. “And we sent them migrants and now they’re complaining about it. It shows they’re hypocrites. It shows that Democrats truly are a party against illegal immigrants, except when it’s confined only to states like Texas.”
Abbott argued small towns in Texas, such as Eagle Pass and Del Rio, have “no capability of dealing with these illegal immigrants.”
Adams’s lawsuit alleges the 17 defendant companies “knowingly implemented Governor Abbott’s publicly articulated plan without any regard for the individuals they were transporting or an effort to help manage this humanitarian crisis.” His office said these buses have engaged in “bad faith” conduct where the bus and transportation companies profit from the situation.
Updated at 6:00 p.m.