Call it New York hospitality for one southern visitor.
Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday offered Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a stay in one of the city’s migrant shelters while the Republican, responsible for busing tens of thousands of newcomers to the five boroughs, is due to be in town on April 4 for a fundraiser.
Abbott is headlining the New York Republican Party’s annual gala at the Hilton Midtown in Manhattan Thursday evening, an invite that was seemingly driven by his hardline anti-immigration stance. The Texas governor’s visit comes nearly two years after launching his operation to send busloads of migrants from the Lone Star State to the Big Apple and other northern “sanctuary cities.”
Adams, who previously marked Abbott as one of his chief political opponents, jokingly offered the Texas governor a bed in one of the city’s large-scale migrant shelters, known as Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRCs), during his time in the city.
“I’m going to offer him a stay in one of the HERRCs, so he can see what he has created and understand how we are treating people with the dignity and respect that he should have shown as well,” Adams said, in response to a reporter’s question during an unrelated Thursday press event.
An Abbott spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
HERRCs account for just some of the over 200 shelters erected by the city over the past two years to provide emergency housing to the more than 180,000 migrants who have shown up here since April 2022. Currently, the city is still sheltering roughly 64,000 new arrivals.
Political ploy from Abbott
Abbott has made it no secret that his bussing scheme is a political ploy to stick it to northern Democratic-run cities that have pro-immigration policies but did not, until 2022, have to contend with anywhere near the influx of migrants southern border states do. While the migrants bussed by Texas only make up a small portion of those who have come to the city overall, Abbott’s plan partially spurred the massive influx, which has caused numerous logistical and financial crises for City Hall.
Abbott also appears to have been successful in creating strife within the Democratic Party, as Adams has publicly criticized President Biden on multiple occasions for not giving the city more migrant crisis aid and resources. Biden, in turn, dropped Adams as one of his presidential reelection campaign surrogates last spring and did not meet with the mayor for over a year.
Adams also blasted Abbott for refusing to coordinate with his administration when sending buses north.
“He’s going to see how you can manage the crisis with coordination,” the mayor said. “Not one child or family sleeping on the streets of the city of New York and when we coordinate together we should not displace problems to local municipalities. That is not what executives do. It is unfortunate that he made the decision to do that.”
The lack of communication became such a thorn in Adams’ side that he earlier this year sued 17 bus companies that had facilitated Abbott’s plan after they also refused to coordinate when and where they were dropping off migrants in the city. The suit goes after the bus operators on other grounds, alleging they violated the state’s Social Services Law by bringing people from out of state here to become a public charge without picking up the tab.
However, one of those bus companies reached an accord with City Hall last month to cease its bussing operations for the duration of the legal action.
At the time, Abbott called the suit “baseless” and claimed migrants traveling on chartered buses sent by Texas were coming to the city “voluntarily.”
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