New York Mayor Eric Adams has claimed that some migrants are being "forced" on buses from Texas, as 14 more asylum seekers arrived in the city Sunday on another bus sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Fifty-four asylum seekers arrived in New York Friday on board
a bus from Texas, according to the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Abbott's office indicated that New York is now a designated
"drop-off location for the busing strategy as part of the governor's
response to the Biden administration's open border policies overwhelming Texas
communities," according to a statement released Friday announcing the
arrival of the first bus.
"It's unimaginable, what the governor in Texas has
done," Adams told reporters Sunday. "When you think about this
country, a country that has always been open to those who were fleeing
persecution and other intolerable conditions, we've always welcomed that. And
this governor is not doing that in Texas, but we are going to set the right
message, the right tone, of being here for these families."
On Monday, Adams called it a "mean and cruel
thing." Thus:
Wow: NYC Mayor Eric Adams says Texas gov Abbott forced some migrants to get on bus to nyc. If true that is felony human trafficking. DOJ must open an investigation to see if Abbott is in any way coercing people.
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) August 8, 2022
True to the "kick me" sign affixed to Mayor Adams'
posterior
Manuel Castro, commissioner of the mayor's immigrant affairs
office, told CNN New York is a right-to-shelter city, so anyone who needs
shelter may receive it. However, the city has "exhausted" its regular
shelter space, so it has leased additional space at hotels, he said.
"These are families, these are people," Castro
said. "They have a right to be here as asylum-seekers and New York is here
to welcome them. They frankly need a lot of support. They've traveled a long
way to get here."
Adams repeated Monday he hoped to be in touch directly with
the White House about federal assistance on the matter.
"Right now, we are at a state where we must get to the
assistance from the federal government," Adams said.
The Biden administration has "been in regular contact
with Mayor Adams," White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said, and the
administration is "committed to working with them as we do effectively
with other local leaders through FEMA funding and other support".....
Adams issued an emergency declaration last week to
"rapidly procure shelter and other services" for people seeking
asylum in the city. Those who want to stay in New York will go to shelters, and
volunteer groups will be helping "those who want to go somewhere
else" to travel to another location, the mayor said.
Score one- one big one- for the mayor of Texas, in a hotly
contested re-election race in a conservative state as he
claimed in a statement Monday, though, that the asylum
seekers freely chose to go to New York, "having signed a voluntary consent
waiver, available in multiple languages, upon boarding that they agreed on the
destination."
"What's horrific is the thousands of illegal immigrants
overrunning and overwhelming our border communities with populations smaller
than a New York City borough, and Mayor Adams is hypocritically upset about
welcoming a few dozen into his sanctuary city," Abbott said. "If the
mayor wants a solution to this crisis, he should call on President Biden to
take immediate action to secure the border—something the President continues
failing to do."
A fierce critic of the Biden administration's immigration
policies, Abbott began sending hundreds of willing migrants on buses to Washington,
DC, earlier this year as an affront to the administration. Abbott's office has
said that "to board a bus or flight, a migrant must volunteer to be
transported and show documentation from DHS."
More than 5,100 migrants have arrived in Washington from
Texas on more than 135 buses, according to the governor's office.
"In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the
ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city
services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the
sanctuary city," Abbott said Friday.
His state has been busing people to Washington, DC and New
York City "to provide relief to our local partners," Abbott said in
the statement.
In some instances of GOP extremism- such as President Trump's
policy of family separation at the border- cruelty is the point. Not in this case, though. Governor Abbot has no problem with New York City providing
emergency services, ongoing social services, or amnesty for the immigrants he
has sent to New York City.
With Eric Adams' assistance, Greg Abbot has made his point: Texas is for Texans, New York City and
other liberal cities are for immigrants, with sanctuary and a full panoply of, as conservatives put it, "free things."
Obeidallah is right. NYC can't fight this on its own, and the federal government must intervene to address an appalling policy established to set one state against another. In the absence of action by the Department of Justice, Governor Abbott will successfully convince voters that conservatives believe America is for Americans, not for outsiders, whatever their need; and that conservatives are men of action, not men who will take it up that part of the anatomy where NYC Mayor Eric Adams has the "kick me" sign.
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