New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) issued an emergency executive order Wednesday placing strict limits on bus arrivals from Texas carrying migrant asylum seekers to stem an immigrant surge that has overwhelmed city resources.
The executive order requires bus operators carrying migrants with fares paid “by a third party” to give advance notice that they are on the way 32 hours before their anticipated arrival time. They are also required to disclose, ahead of time, the number of passengers and the number expected to need emergency shelter or “other immediate services” upon their arrival.
The order further requires bus drivers to give their names and information about the bus they are driving so that city employees can identify the bus when it arrives. Finally, the order signed by Mayor Adams restricts when and where buses can drop off migrant passengers to specific hours at designated locations.
NY Mayor Eric Adams on the migrant crisis: “For many months we were able to keep visualization of this crisis from hitting our streets… But we have reached a breaking point. We are no longer able to do that.”
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 28, 2023
“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 during a virtual meeting Wednesday with the mayors of Denver and Chicago. The Commissioner of Emergency Management will take notices from bus drivers to coordinate New York City’s response.
“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.” He was referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), whom Democrat mayors accuse of playing politics instead of working with them to help migrants resettle.
Port Authority/ Roosevelt Hotel NYC.
Hours after the NYC Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order, the migrant buses keep rolling in from Texas, a majority of the migrants that came off were family's with kids, some came off the bus wearing nothing but T-shirt with blankets… pic.twitter.com/QRWJJnuV2U— Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) December 28, 2023
Chicago recently passed similar measures to those in New York City. Buses reportedly flouted the new rules in Chicago by dropping migrants off in the suburbs just outside the city. Adams says that migrant busing to his city will cost New Yorkers $12 billion over the next three years.
Adams has taken matters into his own hands following inaction from the Biden Administration, which the New York City mayor has criticized for failing to mobilize federal help for the migrant crisis. After a trip to Washington D.C. earlier this month to spur federal aid, Adams told New Yorkers, “Help is not on the way.”
