Battle over buses with migrants
Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly said that his administration has never gotten a heads up about the buses carrying asylum-seekers from Texas to New York. But an official in Texas disputes that.
NEW YORK – For months, the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown has seen bus after bus arrive filled with asylum-seekers. The majority of them have come from El Paso, Texas.
Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly said those buses were unannounced. In an email, a City Hall spokesperson told Fox 5 News this afternoon that New York City was never made aware how many buses were coming or how many people were on board.
"The states are not giving us any heads up so we do not know when [the buses] are coming in or how many come in," mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy said in the email.
Laura Cruz-Acosta, the communications director for the city of El Paso, said that's not true. She told Fox 5 News that since the first bus from El Paso traveled to New York City on Aug. 23, New York's Emergency Management Department, the mayor’s office, and NGOs in New York have been aware. She added that El Paso also developed a manifest.
The states are not giving us any heads up so we do not know when [the buses] are coming in or how many come in. Fabien Levy, spokesperson for NYC Mayor Eric Adams
"We would provide the manifest to the NGO at the final destination," Cruz-Acosta said. "So we would coordinate with local NGOs at the destination sites and as well coordinate with the mayor's offices as well as the emergency operations folks at the destination sites."
She said El Paso has bused nearly 11,000 migrants to New York City to date. The last bus heading to New York City left El Paso on Thursday carrying 51 migrants.
Adams told Good Day New York on Friday morning that the situation from El Paso has been unpredictable.
"We received a call from El Paso — the mayor stated that he would no longer will send buses here to New York," Adams said.
We would coordinate with the mayor’s offices as well as the emergency operations folks at the destination sites. Laura Cruz-Acosta, spokesperson for El Paso, Texas
The mayor said New York has seen a big decrease in the number of migrants arriving in recent days. He credited President Joe Biden's administration new migration enforcement process for Venezuelans that took effect a week ago. Venezuelans who enter the United States between ports of entry, without authorization, will be returned to Mexico.
The mayor's office told Fox 5 News that there was never an agreement to take in these migrants but did say it received notice the night before when a bus would be arriving the following morning.