Texas governor resumes sending immigrants to New York by bus
New York, May 3 (EFE).- The city of New York on Wednesday once again began receiving new groups of immigrants on buses chartered by the Republican governor of Texas, Gregg Abbott, at a time when the city’s immigrant shelters and economic resources are being used at “maximum capacity.”
The first bus to arrive on Wednesday at the Port Authority pulled in at 6:30 am carrying 41 Latino immigrants, including many families with children.
The second bus arrived at 1:30 pm with 50 people on board – all Latinos – including 27 adults and 23 children. Immediately, as has been occurring since last August, when the first such buses arrived in the Big Apple from Texas, New York authorities provided them with food, immigration orientation information and other services at the port facilities.
The commissioner for Immigrant Affairs in the Mayor’s Office, Manuel Castro, who welcomed the immigrants and shook their hands upon their arrival, once again lambasted Abbott for sending buses carrying immigrants without coordinating the move with the city.
He also criticized the federal government because, nearly a year after the immigrant flow from the southern border to New York City was launched, Washington has done little to support the city in the humanitarian crisis declared over the arrival of more than 50,000 immigrants since May 2022.
“(The immigrants) have no choice but to get on these buses sponsored by Gov. Abbott, who is clearly using them for political purposes,” Castro told reporters at the Port Authority, adding that New York authorities are also disappointed with the federal government because it “refuses to intervene and stop what Gov. Abbott is doing, to provide immediate relief to people.”
He said that sending immigrants to Democrat-controlled cities like New York and Chicago is “creating chaos,” adding that the federal government must share the blame for the situation because New York has only received $8 million in federal funding to deal with the immigrant flow.
“We can’t wait any more,” he said, calling upon President Joe Biden and US authorities to act.
Last August, Abbott began sending buses to Democratic cities that have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities for immigrants, including New York, in response to the open borders policy of the Biden administration, which according to the governor is “overwhelming” the entire Texas border region.
So far, New York has received more than 57,000 immigrants, housing more than 34,000 of them in public shelters and 120 hotels with which the city has had to contract. The immigrants have continued arriving on buses or by air, some 1,400 of them per week, according to New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Castro on Wednesday told EFE that the city’s infrastructure for taking in immigrants “is maxed out” with more than 120 hotels converted into shelters where “there’s no longer any space,” and he noted that soon the tourist season will start, meaning that “there will be less space to house so many people.”
“This is a double crisis,” he said, “which all those who are arriving are suffering, along with the city because our infrastructure can’t take any more.”
“We hope that the federal government will realize this and we won’t get to the point where (immigrant) families and others are out on the streets without shelter,” he said.
EFE
–/bp
