Adams’ attempt to control migrant buses faces immediate obstacles

A chartered bus from Texas filled with migrants crashed onto a street near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan at 10:03 p.m. Thursday.

It was about 24 hours after Mayor Eric Adams signed an emergency executive order intended to limit the arrival of such buses to several hours in the morning, in an effort to slow the flow of tens of thousands of migrants that the Texas governor has ordered into New York sent. York city.

More than 20 people, including mothers with babies and toddlers in their arms, got off the bus and entered a shaded hallway outside the terminal. They grabbed their luggage from the vehicle’s cargo area before volunteers took them to a second bus that took them to the city’s migrant intake center at the nearby Roosevelt Hotel.

The entire process lasted 13 minutes and showed the difficulties New York faces as officials try to manage a crisis that they say has overwhelmed the city’s homeless shelter system. After 14 busloads of migrants from Texas arrived in one day last week, Mr. Adams said the order was intended to add more structure to a process he described as out of control.

“For months we have prevented the visualization of this crisis from reaching our streets,” Mr. Adams said on CNN Friday morning, “but we have reached the breaking point.”

New York City, which is required by court order to provide shelter to those who request it, has processed 161,500 asylum seekers since spring 2022; 68,000 are now under the city’s care. From December 18 to December 24, 3,400 people – almost 500 per day – went through the intake system. Mr. Adams said officials expected an increase in arrivals because of another surge at the southern border.

But the plan to manage these newcomers can be difficult to implement.

Under the order, which went into effect early Friday, a bus carrying migrants must give the city 32 hours’ notice before arriving. A manifest documenting how many bus passengers have arrived in the country in the past three months, how many of them are likely to seek emergency accommodation and how many of them are traveling alone or as part of a family is now required.

Over the past year and a half, Texas and state border cities like El Paso have chartered buses to offer migrants free trips to New York as a way to ease pressure as border crossings have increased.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said he has sent 25,000 migrants to New York City as part of an effort to draw attention to the difficulties states are facing at the southern border. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, has sent most of the migrants to Democratic-run cities in hopes of forcing President Biden to “secure the border,” Mr. Abbott’s office said.

The buses typically dropped off their passengers on a public street next to the terminal. The order requires buses to drop migrants there, but only between 8:30 a.m. and noon Monday through Friday, unless given permission to do otherwise.

But many of the migrants coming to the city pay their own tickets to arrive by bus or plane, according to advocates who work with the newcomers. Port Authority officials said the mayor’s decision did not apply to buses authorized to drop people off inside the terminal.

Late Thursday night, two men describing themselves as private contractors spoke briefly with Port Authority police officers outside the terminal after their charter bus arrived and dropped people off on the city street.

Were the men aware of the executive order?

“We are aware,” said one of them, who declined to give his name and said he had been instructed not to talk to anyone after letting passengers off the bus.

A similar order in Chicago has not slowed the flow of buses there. Charter buses have attempted to drop off migrants in the middle of traffic, on random city streets and at O’Hare International Airport, said Ronnie Reese, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s press secretary.

According to Mr. Reese, bus companies have also started dropping off migrants in neighboring cities to get around Chicago’s new rules. Some cities have begun to adopt similar rules to try to control how and where buses leave their passengers.

Chicago increased penalties this month after the flow of migrants continued. So far, the city has cited 95 buses for violating the law, seized two buses and three buses for illegally dumping sewage.

“Texas bus companies continue to willfully break the law by ignoring rules designed to ensure the safety of asylum seekers arriving in Chicago,” Mr. Reese said. “This inhumane treatment further jeopardizes the safety and security of asylum seekers and adds additional burdens on city agencies, volunteers and mutual aid partners charged with easing the already difficult transition.”

Since Mr. Adams issued the executive order, city officials say they have notified more than 50 charter bus companies of the new rules, which they believe are being used consistently by Governor Abbott to transport asylum seekers. As of Friday afternoon, the city had not received word of upcoming arrivals from Texas, said Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for Mr. Adams.

Ms. Mamelak said she expected police to begin monitoring the loading zone and issuing violations or impounding buses that violated the executive order, and several officers were at the designated drop-off zone Friday. Migrants on buses those that violated the order or were seized would still be referred to the city’s intake center, Ms. Mamelak said.

Power Malu, from the group Artists Athletes Activists, met migrants at the bus station and connected them to city services. He said his group was often in contact with buses heading into the city and that he believed the executive order would force more buses to make surreptitious stops. Several other buses had arrived after the 10 p.m. bus on Thursday, he added.

“Instead of stepping aside and actually supporting the organizations that are on the front lines, that have connections, that are trying to make this go as smoothly as possible, they want to take the fight to Texas,” Mr. Malu said. “There is no logic behind it.”

Despite the difficulties Chicago has encountered with rules governing the migrant buses, officials there said they have seen some progress. Bus permit applications, which included expected arrival times, number of passengers and a manifest, began to arrive.

Yet the flow of migrants in need of assistance to the city has not diminished.

“All permit applications received,” Mr. Reese said, “have been accepted.”

Andy Newman reporting contributed.