First bus of migrants sent by Gov. Abbott in Texas arrives in NYC
Just days after Mayor Eric Adams turned down Greg Abbott’s invitation to visit the southern border, the Texas governor sent a taste of President Biden’s ongoing migrant surge to NYC’s doorstep — with the first busload of border-crossers arriving in Manhattan Friday morning.
Abbott also vowed to continue transporting migrants to the Big Apple, which he called an “ideal destination” due to the city’s generous treatment of homeless people.
The green charter bus spent about 30 minutes circling the Port Authority terminal in Midtown Manhattan before being allowed to enter and park at Gate 14, Fox News reported.
Port Authority officials were apparently caught unawares when the bus showed up, Fox News said.
A group of unidentified charity workers greeted the migrants when they disembarked and whisked them away a short time later, Fox News said.
More than 50 migrants were relocated from Texas to the Big Apple, Abbott’s office told The Post.
The move marked an expansion of the Republican governor’s program to transport migrants by bus to Washington, DC, where more than 6,100 have been sent since April.
It also came just days after Adams turned down Abbott’s invitation to visit the southern border to “see firsthand the dire situation” there.
“Because of President Biden’s continued refusal to acknowledge the crisis caused by his open border policies, the State of Texas has had to take unprecedented action to keep our communities safe,” Abbott said Friday in a statement posted online.
“In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city.”
Abbott added: “I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief.”
Abbott’s statement also said that “New York City will now be a drop-off location” and noted: “As one of the few cities in America with right to housing laws, New York City is required to provide emergency shelter for every unhoused person.”
Last month, Adams revealed that the city’s shelter system was overloaded by nearly 3,000 migrants who’d arrived in the preceding weeks.
That number has since swelled to more than 4,000, according to City Hall.
At the time, Adams, a Democrat, accused Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey of sending the migrants to New York, which both Republican governors denied.
Adams later called them “cowards” for sending away people “who are looking for help” and accused them of lying about the migrants sent to Washington “so they could do a layover and then come to New York.”
On Friday, mayoral press secretary Fabien Levy told The Post, “Gov. Abbott is finally admitting to what we’ve known he’s been doing all along.”
“His continued use of human beings as political pawns is disgusting, and an embarrassing stain on the state of Texas,” Levy said.
“New York will continue to welcome asylum seekers with open arms, as we have always have, but we are asking for resources to help do so. We need Washington, DC’s assistance in dealing with the cruel political games being played by inept politicians like the governor of Texas.”
A family of four from Bogota, Colombia, ended up at the city’s homeless intake center for families in The Bronx.
“We came here because they said they would help us find a place to sleep to not have to stay in the street,” said the mom, who gave her name as Leidy.
Leidy said she and her husband Byron, both 28, brought their kids — Mariana, 7, and Nicolas, 13 — to the US because they were having trouble finding work in their native country.
“It’s a little easier to enter the country now. Before it was very hard to come here with children,” she said.
Venezuelan migrant Jose Gregorio Forero said that the bus ride from Texas to New York City took more than a day, adding that he passed through eight countries before entering the US.
“It’s taken 31 days to get here, on foot and asking for rides,” he said.
Forero also said he hoped to find work in the city, which he called “very beautiful.”
“I love it,” he added.
Last month, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser requested help from the National Guard to deal with the influx of migrants, telling Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that the city was “overwhelmed.”
“With pledges from Texas and Arizona to continue these abhorrent operations indefinitely, the situation is dire and we consider this a humanitarian crisis – one that could overwhelm our social support network without immediate and sustained federal intervention,” she wrote.
During a Thursday night appearance on Fox News, Abbott downplayed the severity of the situations in New York and Washington.
“They’re up in arms about a few thousand people coming into their communities over the past few months?” he said.
“Listen, in any one sector in the state of Texas, we have more than 5,000 people coming across [the border] in that sector every single day.”
Migrants who aren’t expelled from the US under the Title 42 public-health restriction imposed by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic are generally released into the country to seek asylum.
The Biden administration moved to lift the policy earlier this year but was blocked in May when a federal judge in Louisiana sided with 24 Republican state attorneys general who warned it would lead to a massive surge of migrants across the border.
With Post wires
