New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a lawsuit against 17 charter bus and transportation companies that seeks to recoup all costs New York City has incurred providing emergency shelter and services to migrants transported by the charter bus companies – totaling at least approximately $708 million in the last 20 months.
Since the spring of 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has admitted to facilitating the transport of more than 33,600 migrants to New York City, according to the mayor's office.
The lawsuit, also announced by New York City Corporation Counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, alleges transporting the migrants without paying for the cost of continued care is a violation of New York's Social Services Law.
According to a news release, the suit seeks to recoup the hundreds of millions of dollars incurred to care for the migrants, costs moving forward for any migrants still in New York City's care, and costs for all those who are transported to New York City from Texas in the future as part of Governor Abbott's plan.
"New York City has and will always do our part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot bear the costs of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas alone," Mayor Adams said.
"Today's lawsuit should serve as a warning to all those who break the law in this way."
"Governor Abbott continues to use human beings as political pawns, and it's about time that the companies facilitating his actions take responsibility for their role in this ongoing crisis," added New York Governor Kathy Hochul. "If they are getting paid to break the law by transporting people in need of public assistance into our state, they should be on the hook for the cost of sheltering those individuals – not just passing that expense along to hard-working New Yorkers. I'm proud to support the mayor's lawsuit."
The suit alleges the 17 defendants named in the lawsuit knowingly implemented Governor Abbott's publicly articulated plan without regard for the individuals they were transporting or an effort to help manage this humanitarian crisis.
Rather, it has been a conduct of bad faith - from which the bus and transportation companies are profiting – to execute Texas's plan to sow chaos and shift the traditional cost of migration at the southern border to New York City and other cities across the country, the mayor said.
The state social services law authorizes the commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) to sue to recover costs.
Together with the New York City Department of Law, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is representing the DSS commissioner in the lawsuit, led by firm chair Brad S. Karp, partner Michele Hirshman, and special counsel and former DSS Commissioner Steven Banks.
The lawsuit comes in the wake of an executive order issued by Mayor Adams last week that required improved coordination from charter bus companies transporting new migrant arrivals into New York City, ensuring the safety and well-being of both migrants and city staff receiving them.
Officials claimed the bus companies being sued are the same companies that are now evading compliance with the executive order by busing migrants to New Jersey train stations and then having the migrants take a train to New York City.
Between April 2022 and December 2023, the city says it has spent an estimated $3.5 billion on shelter and services for the over 164,500 individuals who have come through the city's intake center.
