White House says Federal Law dictates immigration law, not states

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is furious with Texas Governor Greg Abbot, and the reciprocated feud is now creating a new type of bussing war, with an over-the-state-line political impact.

On April 5, Governor Abbot started bussing illegal immigrants, located on the Texas southern border, over 2,500 miles to the Big Apple, the first time any state has done such a thing. And New York City is not alone in Abbot’s bussing of immigrants. Texas has sent over 6,100 migrants on buses to other destinations such as Washington, D.C.

Abbot says he is bussing immigrants in a program he called ‘Operation Lone Star’ due to the Biden administration's open border policies because the new wave of immigrants is too much for Texas communities to handle.

A law known as Title 42 is a pandemic-era emergency health order created by former President Trump that allowed immigration authorities to turn away migrants at the border, even those seeking asylum. The Biden administration has sought to end this program.

NYC Mayor Adams and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser are now asking for federal aid to help their cities deal with thousands of new immigrants. The bussed immigrants arriving in NYC and D.C. are primarily being helped by non-profits, shelters and volunteers.

Mayor Adams said he is furious that Gov. Abbot is using “innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis.” However, Adams added on Twitter, “Unlike Governor Abbott, New York City will always do our part.”

In NYC, immigrants are arriving hungry, thirsty, disoriented, often sick with COVID-19, and without vital medicines such as insulin.

"This is horrific when you think about what is doing," Adams said.

But never count NYC out in a fight. Mayor Adams says he’s considering turning the tables on the Governor. Adams said he is considering bussing New Yorkers to Texas for a very different reason than to move them there. He is thinking about sending New Yorkers to work against Abbot in person with a get-out-the-vote campaign to unseat him in the November election.

Responding to the news that Adams might send New Yorkers to campaign against him in the Lone Star State, Abbot said, "I kind of feel like Clint Eastwood. Go ahead, Mayor. Make my day.”

But forcing immigrants to get on a bus to NYC or D.C. is illegal, says the A.C.L.U.

"Any forcible busing of migrants across the country would be outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional," Kate Huddleston, a staff attorney at ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. "Given that Abbott cannot dictate where people are sent, he has already backpedaled on this heinous plan, announcing that it will be only voluntary."

Abbot is already being accused of breaking constitutional laws by his deployment of Texas Department of Public Safety officers plus the Texas National Guard to his southern borders last month. The authorities arrested and detained thousands of migrants who gained access to the US from Mexico.

His busing of immigrants to NYC and D.C. is also suspect because the immigrants must agree to be sent to their prospective destinations. If the immigrants are forced or coerced to take buses to far-flung states, Abbot’s actions could be illegal.

"It seems very important to the state to take migrants to D.C. There's a strong interest in getting migrants on those buses," said Denise Gilman, the co-director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. "They had to say it's voluntarily but everything about the program suggests it would be coercive and therefore of questionable legality.”

A White House statement about the new border actions by Abbot was clear.

The statement said, “Enforcement of our country’s immigration laws lies with the federal government, not a state.”