More migrant buses are already arriving in cities far from the border.

More than a week before the expected lifting of Title 42, a bus stopped at the Port Authority bus station in midtown Manhattan at 7 a.m. sharp, carrying 41 new migrants.

Most were families with children, and most were from Venezuela, said Ilze Thielmann of Team TLC NYC, a group of volunteers who provide support to the new arrivals. A second bus arrived around 1 p.m. with 50 people on board, the group said.

A year after New York City’s first surge in migrants, bus arrivals at Port Authority have become a tightly controlled operation: arriving migrants are greeted by volunteers, then whisked away to centers organized by the city to connect them to services and shelters for the homeless. , often no longer have hotels and other centers.

Buses slowed down earlier this year, but now the city is bracing for much more.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has resumed a program started last year to send migrants to Democrat-controlled cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C.

Manuel Castro, New York City’s immigration commissioner, said up to 1,000 migrants could arrive daily in the coming weeks.

Last week, Mr. Castro told reporters at the bus station that Governor Abbott was “clearly using them for political purposes,” echoing Mayor Eric Adams, who has been embroiled in a rhetorical war with the Texas leader since last summer. The mayor has also criticized President Biden for not doing more to help cities cope.

“It’s becoming more and more of a crisis because the federal government is refusing to step in and stop what Governor Abbott is doing to help people immediately,” Castro added.

For his part, Mr Abbott said so last week his state would continue “this necessary program”. provide assistance to border towns.

Chicago has faced a similar tension and dilemma as New York: Many residents embrace the city’s reputation as a haven for new immigrants, but the arrival of more than 8,000 migrants has tested its resolve. (Nearly 60,000 have come to New York, though not all have stayed.)

In Washington, D.C., an increasing number of migrants could exacerbate an already difficult situation for organizations that last year were still trying to provide housing and services for those brought into the city by buses, said Diana Fula of the Congregation Action Network. Ms. Fula said that the hotels provided for temporary shelter are full.

“Eventually we will see migrants sleeping in tents or next to cars because that is how the government treats migrants who have no other choice; this will soon become our reality in the city,” she said in a telephone interview.