Mayor backs down as Texas sends more than 4,000 immigrants to New York

The mayor spoke to the media outside the busy bus terminal on Sunday morning, adding that some of the families on the bus wanted to go to another city. But when they tried to explain, they were given no choice, the mayor said.

“It’s unimaginable what the governor of Texas has done. When you think about this country, a country that has always been open to those fleeing persecution and other intolerable conditions,” he said. “We have always welcomed this. And this governor isn’t doing that in Texas. But we’re going to set the right message and the right tone to be here for these families.”

Abbott included New York as a means of trying to force President Joe Biden to introduce tougher border security measures.

“New York is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has touted within the sanctuary city,” Abbott said in a statement. “I hope he makes good on his promise to welcome all migrants with open arms so that our overcrowded and overcrowded border towns can find relief.”

Abbott claimed a bus that arrived in New York on Friday with 54 immigrant passengers was the first to be sent from Texas, but New York officials said they were skeptical, pointing to a significantly larger number of people who had arrived in the city in recent months , but not all by bus.

Manuel Castro, the city’s immigration commissioner, said Abbott was using immigrants “as political pawns” and called on the Biden administration to provide federal relief.

“Our budgets are affected because no one is planning [4,000] or [5,000] or 6,000 or even more people to arrive, so they need shelter,” Castro said in an interview with Gothamist. “And so, of course, that’s the help we’re looking for from the federal government to step in.”

Although the city is asking the federal government for emergency help, it is not talking to Texas authorities.

“Honestly, they don’t communicate at all, they don’t coordinate,” Castro said. “It’s meant to be disruptive, and that’s unfortunate. Because we’re talking about people’s lives.”