The escalating battle over who should pay the price for the federal government’s failures to enforce the southern border has ensnared an unlikely target — Texas bus companies.
New York Mayor Eric Adams filed a lawsuit last week against 17 bus lines — including several with offices located in the Fort Worth area, such as Wynne Transportation, Roadrunner Charters, Southwest Crew Change and Transportes Regiomontanos — for transporting migrants under contract with the state. Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants to various sanctuary states and cities such as New York to make a point about the impact of unchecked illegal immigration on Texas cities.
In the lawsuit, Adams accuses the companies of violating New York state law by transporting migrants there without helping to finance their living expenses. As such, the lawsuit demands the transportation companies reimburse the city at least $708 million.
Adams should be laughed out of court for trying to hold bus companies responsible for the consequences of New York’s grandstanding on immigration. The mayor and other officials who back sanctuary policies want credit for so-called compassion in thwarting border enforcement. But when Abbott called them on it, they started casting about for someone else to pay the bill — even law-abiding firms that did nothing other than accept a contract with the state of Texas.
“New York City has and will always do our part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot bear the costs of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas alone,” Adams said. Adams also said he hopes the lawsuit will “serve as a warning to all those who break the law in this way.”
In a written statement, Abbott brushed off Adams’ lawsuit: “This lawsuit is baseless and deserves to be sanctioned. It’s clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, or about the constitutional right to travel that has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Some have called Abbott’s migrant busing scheme a political ploy, a cheap trick designed to anger political opponents and force other cities to incur significant costs.
Adams’ lawsuit is yet another sign that the busing — however much of a stunt — has exposed the folly of sanctuary policies. New York and others can talk big about welcoming people who enter the country illegally, but they have balked at a small fraction of the government cost Texas has dealt with for years.
Adams pegs the cost at more than $700 million to care for about 33,000 migrants who have come to New York City. To put that in perspective, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, 2.5 million migrants came through the southern border in fiscal year 2023, which ended in September, breaking 2022’s record. Records show that around Christmas, Border Patrol processed about 10,000 migrants a day entering the U.S. illegally. That’s about 310,000 in just one month, 10 times as many as Abbott has sent to New York City over a much longer period.
It all proves Abbott’s point better than even he could have. If New York can’t handle a few, why or how could Texas handle 10 times more? If it costs New York’s government $700 million, how much is it costing Texas, even with federal aid? If neither state can handle the influx of migrants across the border and into their towns, why isn’t President Joe Biden enforcing immigration law and compromising with Congress to get more done?
In either case, Texas bus companies, several of whom declined to comment on the suits, should not be on the receiving end of a massive lawsuit from a city that advertised itself as a sanctuary to migrants. Attorney General Ken Paxton, never shy about jumping into politically loaded cases, should help defend them, or at least offer legal guidance.
Just as Texas should no longer bear the brunt of federal immigration policy, transport companies shouldn’t be on the hook for the fallout, either.
We initially regarded Abbott’s move as a distraction from the main problems of America’s broken immigration system. And we remain convinced that the country needs a robust system of legal immigration that brings in needed workers and treats asylum claims efficiently but compassionately. But the busing — and the heated reaction from leaders in New York and elsewhere — has shined a light on the underlying issues in a useful way.
Adams’ lawsuit is misguided, but it serves to prove Abbott’s point more than any news story of an overrun border has so far.
