Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott predicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams is going “to lose badly” in court after the city filed a $708 million lawsuit against 17 charter bus and transportation companies involved in transporting migrants to New York City from Texas.
“The lawsuit is completely legally baseless, and the mayor is going to lose very badly for this very specific reason. And that is: Everybody who is bussed to or are planed to New York is already authorized by the Biden administration to be within the United States legally,” Abbott told Fox News’ Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.”
Abbott, who called the New York suit a “political statement,” argued that the Biden administration’s immigration policies give migrants “the legal right to travel wherever they want to the United States.”
“The lawsuit by the mayor violates the United States Constitution in several respects, and the mayor is going to lose and lose badly and I hope he is forced to pay the legal fees for the cost of anybody having to defend against that lawsuit,” he said.
TEXAS AG BLASTS BIDEN ADMIN FOR ‘AIDING AND ABETTING’ CARTELS AFTER MIGRATION NUMBERS SMASH RECORD
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on “Fox News Sunday.” (FOX NEWS )
Adams announced a lawsuit against the 17 bus companies last week, citing “reckless political ploys from the state of Texas.” Abbott is not listed as a defendant in that case.
“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 in a statement. “Today, we are taking legal action against 17 companies that have taken part in Texas Governor Abbott’s scheme to transport tens of thousands of migrants to New York City in an attempt to overwhelm our social services system.”
Instead of suing bus companies, Abbott said Adams should sue the Biden administration for the influx of migrants flooding the city.
“He needs to be suing Joe Biden, not these bus companies. Because it’s Joe Biden and Joe Biden’s policies that’s causing the massive multi-million influx into the United States that leads to many of them wanting to go to New York,” he said.
Migrants gather outside the Roosevelt Hotel as they try to secure temporary housing on Aug. 2, 2023, in New York City. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Texas has bussed more than 33,000 migrants to New York since August 2022 as local leaders in border states sounded off that immigration had boiled to crisis levels. The influx has continued, with migrant numbers at the southern border in December breaking records for monthly encounters at more than 300,000.
Abbott said Sunday that he has sent the Biden administration eight letters addressing five ways the migrant crisis could end, including one letter he personally delivered to President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, but has heard “absolutely nothing” in response.
More than a thousand migrants awaiting entry into the United States from Juarez, Mexico. (Fox News Digital/Jon Michael Raasch)
“I provided eight letters to the Biden administration, which includes the president and Mayorkas – and I personally handed a letter to President Biden and to Secretary Mayorkas when they showed up to El Paso, Texas – outlining five things that they could do that would eliminate the crisis at the border. Shannon, in response to all eight of those letters, I’ve heard absolutely nothing from the Biden administration,” he told Bream.
TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT SIGNS BILL MAKING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION A STATE CRIME
Texas was hit with a Department of Justice lawsuit last week over the state’s new immigration law allowing local law enforcement officers to arrest individuals suspected of entering the U.S. illegally, which Abbott said “simply enforces the laws passed by Congress.” The law allows state judges to order illegal immigrants to be removed from the country.
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“The State of Texas law does not conflict with federal law. And hence, that’s one reason why we will avoid the preemption allegation made by the federal government. The second one is preemption does not apply because the federal government is refusing to enforce the laws passed by Congress. Because they are not enforcing the laws passed by Congress, the law that we passed simply enforces the laws passed by Congress,” Abbott said.
