The Democratic mayors of New York City, Denver and Chicago have come together to place restrictions on when and where migrant buses from Texas and Florida can arrive. The regulations have been made in order to be able to provide help to the passengers.
The mayors came together on a joint video call to announce new regulations. Eric Adams of New York issued an executive order requiring 32 hours’ notice of the arrival of a bus with migrants, according to the New York Times. Adams’ order also requires migrant buses only go to certain locations in the city and only during the workweek between the times of 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m.
Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Mike Johnston of Denver enacted similar orders. Denver allows arrivals from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, according to the Denver Post. Chicago recently increased penalties for bus companies who didn’t file paperwork or use the correct location, according to The Hill. In response, Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas started flying migrants to the city instead of using buses.
Adams said that the new rules were not intended to turn away the migrant buses.
“We cannot allow buses with people needing our help to arrive without warning at any hour of day and night,” Adams said. “To be clear, this is not stopping people from coming, but about ensuring the safety of migrants and making sure they can arrive in a coordinated and orderly way.”
“We really are saying to bus operators and companies, ‘Do not participate in Governor Abbott’s actions,'” Adams added. “We want them to take the appropriate actions of being responsible.”
Many migrants aren’t dressed for the winter weather, according to the Times.
“People are getting off the bus in shorts and flip-flops,” Joshua Goldfein, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told the paper. “The city is not getting any kind of real-time information on when and where these buses are going to arrive.”
Texas and Florida have been sending migrant buses and planes to sanctuary cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. This February, GOP presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill to earmark $10 million to fund the program sending migrants out of the state, according to CNN.
Texas, however, is the main state sending migrants to Democratic cities. Abbott boasted in October that Operation Lone Star has sent more than 50,000 migrants to cities from Texas.
“In no way what the state of Texas is doing is helping the cause,” Johnson said, according to The Hill. “As we recognize that there are challenges — significant challenges — at the border, we do need real substantive immigration reform and policies that allow us to have a structure and a pathway to citizenship.”
Johnston said that Denver in particular was one of Abbott’s targets due primarily to its location.
“We, at this point now, have had more migrant arrivals to our city than any city in America per capita,” Johnston said, according to the Post. “And that is not because there is a thoughtful or coordinated strategy to entry. It is because we are the first big city north of El Paso — and the cheapest bus ticket and the shortest trip for the [Texas] governor and others who are trying to find a place to send people.”
Though Abbott has yet to publicly comment on the joint press conference between the three mayors, in the past he has attempted to circumvent regulations on migrant buses. In Chicago, in addition to sending migrants by plane, he has also sent buses outside the city limits and in Chicago suburbs, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Johnson says, the buses are “literally dropping off individuals alongside the road,” according to WGN-TV. This has led to suburbs passing their own rules increasing fines for bus companies or banning migrant drop-offs.
The mayors also asked the Biden administration to declare a national emergency. The White House has yet to comment on this, however, last week, a Biden spokesperson criticized Abbott.
“Yet again, Governor Abbott is showing how little regard or respect he has for human beings,” Angelo Fernández Hernández told The Associated Press. “This latest political stunt just adds to his tally of extreme policies which seek to demonize and dehumanize people.”