NEW YORK – The mayors of New York, Chicago and Denver have united in a call for more federal support to manage the asylum seeker crisis impacting their cities.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston also accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of "tripling down" on efforts to use asylum seekers as political pawns.
With a record number of crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, New York City and other impacted cities have begun to see another surge of migrants arriving by bus, the mayor's office said.
In response, Mayor Adams on Thursday issued Executive Order 538 requiring 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".
Chartered buses will be required to provide 32 hours’ notice before arriving in New York City.
They will also be required to provide information on the people they are transporting, as well as be required to drop passengers off at a designated location in Manhattan only during specified hours.
New York City has seen a significant increase in chartered buses dropping off passengers at random locations throughout Midtown Manhattan in recent weeks, without any prior notice to city officials.
The mayor's office said this is hampering the city’s ability to manage the situation, including efforts to provide emergency services as needed to migrants.
In the last month, the city has begun to see another surge, recording more than 14,700 new arrivals.
Last week, 14 "rogue" buses with migrants arrived from Texas in a single night — the highest one-day total recorded by the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center since last spring — in addition to migrants still arriving via other modes of transportation.
“New York City has begun to see another surge of migrants arriving, and we expect this to intensify over the coming days as a result of Texas Governor Abbott’s cruel and inhumane politics,” Mayor Adams said in a news release.
"We are proud to have helped nearly 60 percent of the more than 161,000 migrants who have come through our intake system move out of shelter. But cities cannot continue to do the federal government’s job for them.
"We need federal and state help to resettle and support the remaining 68,000 migrants currently in New York City’s care and the thousands of individuals who continue to arrive every single week, and for Governor Abbott to finally stop the games and use of migrants as political pawns.
"I'm proud to stand with Mayor Johnson and Mayor Johnston and push for more federal support for cities impacted by this growing humanitarian crisis. This executive order will also ensure safe, orderly, and coordinated bus arrivals going forward, and will hold accountable those bus companies that refuse to coordinate with us.”
Added Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack: “This executive order will better allow us to coordinate arriving buses, so we can efficiently manage this crisis. But let’s be clear: this is not a substitute for the urgent federal action that New York City — and cities across the country — need. This is a national crisis, and it demands a national solution.”
Effective immediately, all buses covered by the executive order must drop off their passengers at the loading zone on West 41st Street between 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan, unless the New York City Department of Emergency Management has designated or pre-approved a different drop-off location in advance.
The chartered buses can only drop off migrants between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Warning letters are being sent to charter bus companies that New York City has identified as engaging in transporting newly arrived migrants from Texas to New York City.
According to the mayor's office, under New York State law, knowingly violating a local executive order is a class B misdemeanor crime punishable by up to three months imprisonment and an up to $500 fine for individuals and an up to $2,000 fine for corporations.
Companies that knowingly violate Executive Order 538 could have their buses impounded by the New York City Police Department.
Since the crisis began, the city said it has opened more than 210 emergency sites to provide shelter, including 18 additional large-scale humanitarian relief centers.
It says it has also created navigation centers with support from community-based organizations to connect new arrivals with critical resources, enrolled thousands of children in public schools through Project Open Arms, and opened application help centers that have helped submit over 23,000 asylum, Temporary Protected Status, and work authorization applications.
Earlier this spring, the city released “The Road Forward: A Blueprint to Address New York City’s Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis,” detailing how the city will continue to manage the influx of asylum seekers and advocate for support from federal and state partners.
The mayor's office said that as the Adams administration continues to prioritize helping migrants live independently, without significant or timely state and federal assistance, the city plans to pursue a 20 percent reduction in spending on the migrant crisis in the fiscal year 2024 Preliminary Budget, which will be released in January.
