To get around New York’s rules, busloads of migrants stopped in New Jersey

Hundreds of migrants bound for New York City were brought to New Jersey over the holiday weekend, in an apparent attempt to circumvent a city order aimed at limiting the chaotic flow of arrivals.

Since Saturday, 13 buses from Texas and Louisiana carrying about 450 migrants have arrived in New Jersey, including one that arrived in Jersey City early Monday, said Steve Fulop, the city’s mayor. Other stops included the New Jersey Transit hubs in Secaucus, Fanwood, Edison and Trenton.

The increase in arrivals in New Jersey appears to put an end to an emergency executive order last week by New York City Mayor Eric Adams that requires charter bus companies to provide 32 hours’ notice of migrant arrivals and limit the times of arrival. day on which they can be dropped off.

“They are essentially using New Jersey as a bus stop to get around the limits on buses that can arrive in New York,” Mr. Fulop said, adding that he is not yet concerned about the migrants passing through the state.

The buses — mostly from Texas, but at least one from Louisiana — had attendants who helped migrants transfer to trains and buses to New York City. The offices of Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy Tyler Jones said that “nearly all” of the asylum seekers who arrived by bus “had continued their journey en route to their final destination of New York City” and that the state was “little coordinating” with local officials in New Jersey, the federal government and New York City.

Mr. Adams signed his order last week to add more structure to the process of buses dropping off migrants at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan at odd hours and without notice. Mr Adams has said the city was devastated by the migrant crisis. Since spring 2022, New York City has received more than 161,500 asylum seekers, 68,000 of whom are being housed and under the city’s care. New York City is required by court order to provide shelter to those who request it.

Fourteen buses from Texas arrived in one day last week, a record since the city began processing large numbers of migrants sent by Mr. Abbott.

Texas has sent migrants to Democratic-run cities in an effort to draw attention to states’ problems at the southern border and to force President Biden to “secure the border,” the governor’s office said. Mr. Abbott said he had sent 25,000 migrants to New York City.

“Texas Governor Greg Abbott continues to treat asylum seekers as political pawns, now instead dropping off families in the cold, dark night in surrounding cities and states with train tickets to travel to New York City, just as he did in the past has done. Chicago,” Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for Mr. Adams, said in a statement.

Mr. Adams said his executive order was modeled after laws in Chicago that placed limits on when and where migrants could be dropped off. Chicago officials said that in response to the restrictions, buses from Texas began dropping off migrants at O’Hare International Airport, on “random streets” and in adjacent suburbs.

Under Mr. Adams’ executive order, buses could only arrive Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to noon and drivers were required to have manifests detailing which passengers had arrived in the country in the past 90 days, how many would need emergency shelter search and whether passengers were traveling alone or as part of a family.

Businesses that violate the order face misdemeanor charges, which can result in three months in jail and a fine of $500 for individuals and $2,000 for corporations. Police could also seize buses.

Some suburbs around Chicago have implemented similar rules governing when chartered buses carrying migrants can be dropped off. Camille Joseph Varlack, Mr. Adams’ chief of staff, said last week that they have warned surrounding communities about Mr. Adams’ executive order.

“It is not our intention to shift burdens,” Ms. Varlack told WABC-TV last week.

Advocates who greet migrants at the Port Authority bus terminal said last week that the executive order would only cause chaos by forcing buses to make secret stops.

Michael Gonnelli, the mayor of Secaucus, NJ, where several migrants disembarked this weekend, said in a statement Sunday that the new rules may be too difficult to enforce and would have “unexpected consequences” for New Jersey transit hubs.