Left: Migrant children prepare to board a school bus while guided by their guardians in front of the Row Hotel that serves as migrant shelter on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)/Top right: New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference at City Hall, Dec. 12, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)/ Bottom right: Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a news conference after surveying tornado damage in Perryton, Texas, Saturday, June, 17, 2023. AP Photo/David Erickson, File)
The companies hauling migrants on chartered buses by the tens of thousands and then dumping them off into the care of cities wherever they end up are now facing a massive lawsuit from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who announced the filing of a complaint seeking $708 million in compensation from the companies operating at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s behest.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday with the Supreme Court for the State of New York and named 17 bus companies Adams says have overlooked a 19th-century provision in New York law that addresses “just this kind of conduct.”
When the companies agreed to bus thousands of people “to what [Texas Gov. Greg Abbott] calls ‘sanctuary cities’ including over 33,600 migrants to New York City … over 28,000 such individuals to Chicago, 12,500 to the District of Columbia, 13,800 to Denver, 3,400 to Philadelphia and 1,300 to Los Angeles,” then they are acting in contravention to existing laws protecting “needy people” who become, in effect, public wards, the lawsuit alleges.
The New York provision dictates that anyone who “knowingly brings or causes to be brought a needy person from out of state into this one for the purpose of making him a public charge … shall be obligated to convey such person out of state or support him at his own expense.”
The simplest “testament to the ‘bad faith’ and ‘evil intent”” of the companies doing Abbott’s bidding, the mayor argues, is that they receive “more for their services than it would cost to buy a one-way ticket from Texas to New York City on regularly scheduled buses.”
The defendants, he alleges, receive a whopping $1,650 per migrant on a chartered bus versus just the comparatively measly $291 for a single one-way ticket.
Announcing the lawsuit on Thursday in a video statement, Adams said New York City would continue helping those stuck in the middle of a “humanitarian crisis.”
“But we cannot bear the costs of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas alone,” he added.
The lawsuit notes that costs to house, feed and care for those bussed in have been racking up steadily since 2022. It is estimated Abbott has directed the bussing of at least 80,000 immigrants to Democratic-held cities in this period, so the mayor seeks to recoup not just current expenses but past — and future — ones, too.
In response, Abbott slammed Adams for suing the bus companies and said he should be sanctioned because he was interfering with the migrants’ “constitutional authority” to move about from place to place.
“It’s clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, or about the constitutional right to travel that has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court. Every migrant bused or flown to New York City did so voluntarily, after having been authorized by the Biden Administration to remain in the United States,” a statement released from the governor’s office said.
Nonetheless, attorneys for the New York City mayor noted that an executive order imposed by Adams this December set certain restrictions for these drop-offs, including specific hours and locations.
For example, the executive order demanded out-of-state bussers give New York City 32 hours’ notice of the passengers’ expected arrival.
This would at least allow officials to prepare for the influx, provide humane proper care and “put those who have already suffered so much” out of any further danger, Adams said last month, according to NBC.
But the bus companies are using loopholes to flout this executive order, Adams alleges, and they go just outside the city and into the New Jersey suburbs to drop migrants off.
The defendant companies include Buckeye Coach LLC, Carduan Tours LLC, Classic Elegance Coaches LLC, Coastal Crew Change Company LLC, Ejecutivo Enterprises Inc.; El Paso United Charters LLC; Garcia and Garcia Enterprises Inc. dba Francisco Tours; JY Charter Bus Inc.; Lily’s Bus Lines Inc.; Mayo Tours, Inc.; Norteno Express LLC; Roadrunner Charters Inc.; Southwest Crew Change Company LLC; Transportes Regiomontanos Inc. dba Autobuses Regiomontanos; VLP Charter LLC; Windstar Lines Inc.; and Wynne Transportation LLC.
The companies are headquartered in multiple states including Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, and Iowa.
Representatives for the companies did not immediately return requests for comment to Law&Crime on Friday.
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