New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked the federal government for help when buses carrying migrants sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott arrived in the city.
In a tweet on Sunday, Adams said the Texas governor has “used innocent people as political pawns to create a crisis.”
“New Yorkers are doing everything they can to fix it — those are our city’s values,” he said. “But we need the help of the federal government – money, technical assistance and more.”
In April, Mr. Abbott initiated the Lone Star Operation by sending buses of undocumented migrants arriving in Texas at the southern border to Washington DC.
The governor has said his efforts, widely criticized by critics as a “political stunt”, would help relieve border communities “overwhelmed by record numbers of illegal crossings while bringing the border crisis to President Biden’s doorstep”.
“Now Washington DC needs to realize in a very minimal way exactly what Texas is dealing with as a result of the open border policies that the Biden administration has allowed,” Abbott said in a press release released shortly. after Easter, praising the program for its success in providing “assistance” for Texans.
On Friday, Abbott announced that he has started sending buses to New York after previously denying Adams’ claims that migrants sent from Texas were overwhelming the city’s homeless shelters.
On Sunday, Mr. Adams visited a New York bus station to greet an arriving bus.
“This is horrific, when you consider what the governor is doing,” he said, according to the terminal Politics. “Some families are on the bus who wanted to go to other locations, but that was not allowed. They were forced to board the bus.”
“Our goal is to immediately find out the needs of each family and provide them with the help they want.”
According to recent estimates, more than 200 buses have arrived in Washington DC since the start of the operation, carrying more than 4,000 migrants — costing Lone Star State taxpayers about $1,400 per passenger, according to an NBC survey 5 in Dallas.
Earlier in July, Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser asked the Biden administration to enlist the help of the National Guard to accommodate migrants by bus.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected Ms Bowser’s request, saying the move would “negatively affect the preparedness” of the force.