On Wednesday, New York City received its first known chartered buses bearing migrants sent here by Texas officials in months, and more are expected as local and national officials brace for a predicted surge in migrant border crossings.
Forty-one newcomers stepped onto a gated-off sidewalk at the underpass outside Port Authority Bus Terminal around 7 a.m., and about 50 more arrived on a second bus around 1 p.m. They join more than 59,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since last spring.
The buses follow a promise by Gov. Greg Abbott, Republican from Texas, to ramp up the campaign he began last year of dispatching busloads of migrants to New York, Washington, D.C. and other points north.
Officials say several hundred new migrants continue to arrive in the city daily, long after the flow of chartered buses from border states slowed to a trickle in the fall, before eventually pausing altogether. But the number of daily arrivals could soon swell to over 1,000, said Michael Castro, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, with sweeping pandemic-era border restrictions under Title 42 set to expire May 11.
The Biden administration has said border crossings are expected to double soon afterward. Most of the new arrivals in New York City are asylum-seekers from Central and South America.
Migrants arrive in New York courtesy of a chartered bus dispatched by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
Castro echoed Mayor Eric Adams’ rebuke earlier this week of Abbott’s decision to send more buses to New York City and other major cities led by Black Democrats. Castro also joined in finger-pointing at the lack of help from the White House.
“We are calling on the federal government to intervene now,” Castro pleaded, standing at the underpass ahead of the arrival of the first bus on Wednesday. “There is no more time to wait. They need to step in at the U.S.-Mexico border and help people spread across the country.”
Adams has
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply