Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has resisted New York Mayor Eric Adams' calls for when migrants can arrive in the city – dropping off the latest busload just as the Times Square ball is taking place on New Year's Eve.
Last week, Adams issued an executive order requiring buses to arrive at the Port Authority to drop off migrants only between 8:30 a.m. and noon Monday through Friday, unless otherwise permitted.
Nevertheless, around 11 a.m. a bus with around 50 asylum seekers left for the Big Apple El Paso, Texas. Saturday morning.
The bus, whose passengers include women and children, is scheduled to arrive in Gotham just before midnight Sunday evening, the charter driver told .
“We have to be back on the road by midnight,” he said. “Everyone is celebrating New Year’s Eve and we’re going back.”
Migrants in New York City are seen being bussed to shelter after arriving from Texas
New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a joint news conference Wednesday with the mayors of Chicago and Denver, who are also struggling to deal with the surge in migrant arrivals
Texas officials would not confirm whether they had received permission to leave migrants in New York outside of Adams' mandated time.
The two-man driving team was later scolded by state officials for speaking to .
When asked about Adams' order, a Venezuelan woman traveling by bus to New York said, “We're not all the same.” Perhaps some migrants already there have done things they shouldn't.
“We go there to work.” “We just need a chance,” she added.
The woman, who did not want to be named but said she was traveling with her 11-year-old daughter, said they entered the United States through El Paso on Christmas Day.
They were looking forward to making New York their final destination after leaving Venezuela almost two months ago.
“Work, that’s all we want, is work,” chimed in a migrant standing next to the mother and daughter.
Migrants are seen arriving in Chicago on a bus from Texas
Chicago has spent $138 million on the crisis, which is expected to worsen as temperatures fall over the winter
El Paso city officials have been working with state officials to bus more than 17,000 migrants out of the West Texas city
In a move similar to New York, Chicago has also cracked down on how and when buses from Texas can drop off migrants.
Texas migrant buses
- Over 12,500 migrants to Washington, DC since April 2022
- Over 33,600 migrants to New York City since August 2022
- Over 28,000 migrants to Chicago since August 2022
- Over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022
- Over 13,800 migrants to Denver since May 18th
- Over 1,300 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14th
Source: Governor Greg Abbott's office
Another bus to Denver left before noon, and three buses were waiting to be filled.
That city's mayor and elected officials in the Chicago suburbs have passed local ordinances that require Texas to notify Illinois officials and also regulate where migrants can be dropped off, as this often ties up local resources.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott chartered a private plane earlier this month for about 120 migrants to bypass roadblocks in Chicago and has said more planes are coming.
In border cities like El Paso, where migrants continue to show up to surrender to federal authorities, busing people to their final destination is crucial to preventing local resources from collapsing.
Migrant shelters in West Texas are full and a vacant intermediate shelter is now housing migrants.
The Border Patrol confirmed that more than 22,000 migrants showed up in their small town in besieged Eagle Pass in just one week.
The city's population is only 28,000.
“Texas communities like Eagle Pass and El Paso should not have to endure the unprecedented surge in illegal immigration caused by President Biden’s reckless open borders policies,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott previously said.
Since Christmas, around 1,300 migrants have been on their way through the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.
A second major wave could reach the border in a few weeks when a huge caravan of 6,000 to 8,000 people currently in southern Mexico arrives.
El Paso, which was the epicenter of the border crisis for much of last year, has three major processing centers built in the last 12 months specifically to handle the migrant surge at the border.
Although there are about 1,000 migrant encounters a day in the city — far fewer than in current crisis areas Lukeville, Arizona, or Eagle Pass, Texas, where 10 times as many migrants cross — officials here have the ability to quickly scale up their response if necessary this number is reaching its peak.