New York City Begins Busing Migrants To Northern Suburbs

Topline

New York City transported more than a dozen migrants to a hotel in a suburb north of the city on Thursday, multiple local outlets reported, as the city begins acting on New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial promise to transfer immigrants north, one of several recent moves ahead of an expected influx of border crossings.

Migrants were bused to New York City from Texas in 2022, but now the city is busing some out to … [+] suburbs.

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Key Facts

Two buses carrying 19 migrants arrived Thursday at a hotel in Newburgh, which is roughly 60 miles north of Manhattan in Orange County, to a mixed reception of activists who welcomed them and, later, a group of men on motorcycles who yelled obscenities at the advocates, the New York Times reported.

These are the first immigrants to be bused north, after Adams announced Friday he planned to begin voluntarily sending 300 migrants to hotels in Orange and Rockland counties, where they would be housed for up to four months, all paid for by New York City.

Adams received fierce backlash from leaders and some residents of the two counties—in the Rockland County town Orangetown, police officers preemptively blockaded one of the hotels selected to house migrants to physically stop any buses, per order of county leaders, the New York Times reported.

Rockland County, Orangetown and Newburgh have all sought temporary restraining orders to prevent migrants from arriving, according to NBC New York—Orange County executive Steven Neuhaus (R) called Adams’ move “poorly executed” because of his lack of communication with the suburban communities, while Rockland County executive Ed Day (R) said they are “not equipped to humanely assist” the migrants.

Contra

“We’ve been met with racist rhetoric and reprehensible threats from the head of a county that will be tasked with caring for less than one-fourth of 1% of the asylum seekers who have come to New York City,” Adams’ press secretary Fabian Levy told ABC News, speaking about Rockland County’s response. “And, once again, New York would be paying for shelter, food, and services.”

Tangent

On Wednesday, Adams doubled down on his efforts to limit the number of migrants in need of shelter in New York City by loosening right-to-shelter rules, which are unique to the city and obligate it to immediately find private rooms for migrants. His executive order Wednesday lifts that obligation, as the mayor said New York City no longer has the space to house migrants. New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) signed an executive order on Tuesday releasing more than $1 billion to allow 500 National Guard members to help out at migrant shelters.

Key Background

New York City has cared for more than 61,000 migrants over the past year, Adams said Wednesday, and is looking ahead at an even greater influx as Title 42—a pandemic-era immigration policy—is expiring Thursday and expected to result in more immigrants entering the U.S. from Latin America. Adams said Friday New York “could potentially get thousands of people a day in our city,” as the city is already struggling to house its migrant population and has looked to abandoned and vacant buildings like the Flatiron Building for emergency shelter.

Surprising Fact

In the summer of 2022, Adams blasted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for busing migrants to New York, saying, “This is horrific when you think about what the governor is doing, the governor of Texas, after months of traveling across the border, placing them on the bus with no direction.” Abbott began busing migrants to Democrat-led cities like New York and Washington, D.C. in the spring of 2022, which he said was a response to the Biden administration’s plan to end Title 42. The busing was widely criticized by Democrats, who called it a “publicity stunt.”

New York City Begins Busing Migrants To Northern Suburbs—Sparking Tensions