Tensions are high as New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) deals with an influx of migrants bused into the city from the southern border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who said the move is in protest of President Biden’s immigration policies.
Abbott, joined by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), has reportedly sent thousands of migrants north to New York City and Washington, D.C., to highlight what they say is a humanitarian crisis caused by Biden’s wind-down of Title 42.
The White House rescinded the Trump-era policy, a health order implemented during the pandemic to block migrants from seeking asylum and entering the U.S., though the roll-back was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in early May.
The Texas governor’s office announced New York City and Washington, D.C., as “drop-off location[s] for the busing strategy as part of the Governor’s response to the Biden Administration’s open border policies overwhelming Texas communities.”
Adams has asked for federal assistance to handle the influx of migrants in New York and called for Abbott’s removal from office when the Texas governor, up for reelection, faces Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in this year’s midterms.
“I already called all of my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their vote,” the New York mayor said during a Tuesday press conference.
“I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old-fashioned door knocking. Because for the good of America, we have to get him out of office.”
On Twitter earlier this week, Adams said Abbott “used innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis.” He acknowledged New York NGOs and workers helping out and chided Abbott for not doing the same.
Abbott, on the other hand, says the move to bus migrants north is a response to too-lenient immigration policies that affect states along the southern border.
“Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden Administration’s failure to secure our border,” Abbott said in a statement in a statement from his office.
On Twitter after the first bus of migrants arrived in New York City, Abbott wrote, “Biden refuses to do his job, so Texas continues to take unprecedented action to secure our border… NYC is the ideal destination for these migrants. They can receive the services Mayor Adams has boasted about w/in the sanctuary city.”
Abbott has long opposed “sanctuary cities,” where local authorities aren’t required to report information to federal immigration authorities.
In July, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) asked for the activation of the D.C. National Guard to help manage what the mayor’s office reported as 200 buses carrying more than 4,000 migrants to the capital.
In a letter to White House officials, Bowser called the action “cruel political gamesmanship from the Governors of Texas and Arizona” and accused the pair of having “decided to use desperate people to score political points.”
Abbott also knocked Bowser as migrants arrived in the capital: “DC is experiencing just a fraction of the border crisis created by Biden’s disastrous policies.”
Bowser’s request for the D.C. National Guard was denied by the Pentagon.
White House officials initially dismissed Abbott’s threats, with then-press secretary Jen Psaki calling them a “publicity stunt.”
Earlier this month, Abbott invited Adams and Bowser to Texas to see the border situation for themselves.
The NYC mayor’s office attributes an influx of almost 5,000 migrants who have entered shelter in NYC since late May to Abbott’s efforts, a spokesperson told The Hill Wednesday.
Abbott’s office reported sending thousands to D.C. since the buses started arriving in April.
The Hill has reached out to the NYC and D.C. mayors’ offices.
A White House official told The Hill in an email Wednesday that “there is a process in place to manage migrants at the border, and Republican governors meddling in that process and using desperate migrants as political tools is shameful and it is wrong.”
The official called Abbott’s actions a “political charade” and said the White House is working to “manage the consequences.”
This story was updated at 5:19 p.m.