Mayor Eric Adams took aim at Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, alleging the Texas Republican was “once again” playing politics with “people’s lives” and resuming the busing of asylum seekers to New York and other major cities.
In a statement, Adams called the purported action as “morally bankrupt and devoid of any concern for the well-being of asylum seekers.” He offered no details on when the buses would resume or how many were expected.
Nonetheless, Adams said, with Texas “resuming the busing of asylum seekers to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C. … it is also impossible to ignore the fact that Abbott is now targeting five cities run by Black mayors. Put plainly, Abbott is using this crisis to hurt Black-run cities.”
There was no independent confirmation of Abbott’s resuming the bus caravans, which began last year, igniting a cross-country political feud with Democratic leaders, including Adams, and at once drawing attention to the increasing number of migrants crossing the Southern Border.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It has been months since New York City last received such buses, multiple local immigration advocates say. But there has been no shortage of asylum seekers flowing into the city. As of Sunday, over 59,400 migrants had entered the city’s shelter intake system, and over 36,800 were staying in city-run facilities.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over the weekend sent a letter to Abbott also decrying the bus dispatches as “inhumane and dangerous.”
“The national immigration problem will not be solved by passing on the responsibility to other cities,” she wrote in a letter dated Sunday.
Abbott also was in the news over the weekend for labeling the victims of a mass shooting in his state as “illegal immigrants,” though at least one of them appears to not be, spurring him to apologize, according to a report Monday from the Texas Tribune. Critics said the victims’ immigration status was irrelevant.
Though the pace of migrants arriving in New York City has slowed in recent months, Adams has said the influx is unsustainable. Adams has intensified his pleas for federal intervention as the cost of providing for the migrants is expected to soar into the billions of dollars.
Source: gothamist
