NYC orders restrictions on migrant buses amid surge

New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued an executive order Wednesday to restrict incoming charter buses carrying asylum seekers sent by the Texas governor.

The Adams administration now mandates that charter bus companies transporting migrants to the city arrive between 8:30 am to noon, from Monday to Friday, only at designated locations. Bus companies would also be required to provide a 32-hour notice in advance before arriving.

If companies fail to comply, it could result in a class B misdemeanor, with penalties, including possible fines, lawsuits and impoundment of the buses.

The executive order was issued in response to the chaos on Tuesday when Texas Governor Abbott took responsibility for booking an "unannounced and uncoordinated" flight with 180 migrants from El Paso to Kennedy Airport. The flight was diverted to Philadelphia due to weather, but the migrants were later bused to New York.

"New York City has begun to see another surge of migrants arriving, and we expect this to intensify over the coming days as a result of Texas Governor Abbott's cruel and inhumane politics," Adams said in a statement. "Just last week, 14 chartered buses with migrants arrived overnight from Texas, the highest recorded number in a single night, in addition to the hundreds of migrants who arrived that very same day via other modes of transportation."

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston also joined Adams in calling for additional federal support to manage the asylum seeker crisis and criticized Abbott's "strategy" of sending migrants to major cities.

"I am proud to stand with Mayor Adams and Mayor Johnston as we come together to advocate for viable solutions to this humanitarian crisis," Johnson said in the joint statement. "Chicago will always be a welcoming city, but we need collaboration at all levels of government and our federal partners to provide the necessary coordination and resources so that cities like Chicago, Denver and New York have what is needed to do this crucial work."

"Buses arriving not just in the city of Chicago but surrounding communities as well," Johnson said at another news conference Wednesday. "Some neighborhoods as far reaching as an hour and a half outside the city of Chicago. Buses sent by the governor of Texas. Literally dropping families off in the middle of nowhere."

"As Denver continues to see an increase of newcomers arriving in our city, many of whom are families with children who arrive in the middle of the night in below-freezing conditions, it's clear that what the US is currently doing is not working," Johnston said.

Our cities are working shoulder-to-shoulder to support newcomers, but it's time for the federal government to increase work authorization, create a coordinated entry strategy, and provide more federal dollars to ensure cities can manage this crisis and help newcomers thrive."

Johnston said Denver had received more than 35,000 migrants and was housing 4,000, creating a crisis that is consuming almost 10 percent of the city's budget.

Last year, New York City has seen the arrival of over 160,000 migrants. Although this number is only a small fraction of the millions who have approached the border in the same period, the influx has overwhelmed the city and strained its resources since the migrant crisis began in 2022. The city has spent approximately $4.6 million on coordinating the transportation costs of migrants.

"For more than a year and a half, chartered buses of asylum seekers have arrived across our city with mere minutes' notice and no information on how many men, women, or children are on board, making our herculean task of caring for our newest New Yorkers even harder," Adams's Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack said in the statement.

But let's be clear: this is not a substitute for the urgent federal action that New York City — and cities across the country — need. This is a national crisis, and it demands a national solution."