Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office is firing back at New York City Mayor Eric Adams after he said the city was considering taking legal action against Texas over the busloads of migrants being sent from the Lone Star State to the Big Apple.
Adams made the comments during a Sunday appearance on CBS 2 after more buses carrying migrants arrived Sunday morning in New York City.
“We believe there are some options we have, because when you involuntarily place someone on a bus, we believe that actually skates the law… We’re not leaving any stones unturned to make sure that New Yorkers are [not] being treated in an unfair way.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Renae Eze, press secretary for Gov. Abbott, accused Mayor Adams of “flat-out lying.”
“(Mayor Adams) knows these migrants willingly chose to go to New York City, since his staff saw firsthand on their secret trip to Texas as migrants raised their hands to go on buses to his sanctuary city,” Eze said, noting that migrants sign a voluntary consent waiver available in multiple languages upon boarding that they agree on the destination.
NYC MAYOR ADAMS CONFIRMS MIGRANT DEATH BY SUICIDE AT CITY SHELTER, BLAMES TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT
“And they were processed and released by the federal government, who dumped them in small Texas border towns,” Eze said. “Instead of spreading falsehoods and complaining about a couple thousand migrants being bussed into his sanctuary city, Mayor Adams should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border—something the President continues failing to do.”
When reached for comment, the mayor’s office directed Fox News to statements Mayor Adams’ made over the weekend.
At a Q&A on Monday, the mayor clarified that his legal team was “looking at all our legal options around this entire event” and did not “pinpoint any particular place.”
“As our counsel said last week, we are looking at the right to shelter aspects of it. We are strongly in support of right to shelter, but there are aspects of it that we want to look at,” Mayor Adams said. “And so we’re looking at our legal options on all of what we are seeing, how to address this. And once we identify what legal actions we’re going to take, we’re going to announce that.”
Republican governors have been sending more migrants released at the U.S. border with Mexico to Democratic strongholds, raising questions about their legal status, how they are brought on board buses and planes, and the cost to taxpayers.
Since April, Texas has bussed about 8,000 migrants to Washington, 2,200 to New York and 300 to Chicago. Arizona bussed more than 1,800 to Washington since May, while the city of El Paso, Texas, bussed more than 1,100 to New York since Aug. 23.
Florida’s Ron DeSantis flew about 50 Venezuelans last week to the small, upscale island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. During the weekend, Texas’ Greg Abbott bussed more migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ Washington home.
Fox News’ Landon Mion and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
