UWS Attorney Takes On Adams And TX Gov. Abbott In Migrant Busing Case

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY – In January, New York City sued 17 mostly Texas-based bus companies, seeking $708 million to recoup the city’s costs for caring for the tens of thousands of people transported to New York City under Texas Governor Greg Abbott's controversial busing program.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Mary Rosado dismissed the lawsuit earlier this week.

“States sink and swim together,” Beth Haroules, the lead NYCLU attorney on the amicus brief and UWS local, told Patch.

“What was interesting about this lawsuit is that New York City did not sue Texas, it sued Texas bus companies, who literally said, ‘Why are we here? Why isn’t it Texas who’s being sued?’ And that’s a good question,” she continued. “At the end of the day, there’s nothing illegal about an actor who facilitates a person’s right to travel.”

The city's lawsuit had sought an injunction to prevent the bus companies from continuing the transport of people to New York, arguing that these companies violated state law by transporting immigrants with the intent of shifting the costs of their care from Texas to New York.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), in an amicus brief, argued that the statute the city’s lawsuit relied on – Section 149 of the Social Services Law, enacted in 1817 – is unconstitutional, similar to laws struck down by the Supreme Court more than 80 years ago.

Rosado agreed.

What Happens Next

Roughly 65,000 asylum seekers are currently living in city-funded shelters, which has cost the city an amount in the single-digit billions of dollars.

Many of these asylum seekers have arrived on buses from Texas, whose governor has pledged to continue to send them to New York.

As of earlier this year, Abbott had transported more than 100,000 people to cities across the country, at a cost of about $150 million. His office claims immigrants willingly accept transportation – and said that they sign consent waivers.

Although the city’s lawsuit argued unsuccessfully that the bus companies are violating a state law and acting with the “evil intention of shifting the costs of [their] care to New York,” Texas’ actions do raise serious questions about the ethical and legal implications of transporting people across state lines.

“The State of Texas has taken the position that nobody was coerced into getting on the buses,” Haroules said. “But do people understand what they're signing?” she added, referring to the consent waivers. “There's always a question about coercion and the like.”

Regardless of the legality of the practice, Haroules finds it troubling - to say the least.

“What you have are these sort of cynical ploys: all of the people who are being shipped all over the place are being used by political actors who have the power of the state and should know better than to use people as pawns.”

Playbook

As for NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Haroules sees the city’s unsuccessful lawsuit as part and parcel of the way the administration conducts business.

“It’s a playbook,” she said. “When the city took the position [it did], we tried in our brief to show a pattern of the Adams Administration working to dissuade asylum seekers from coming to New York City.”

That’s simply antithetical to the nature of immigration in New York City, for Haroules.

“New York has always been a beacon for migration - this is not unusual, we've had waves of migration before,” she said.

“People are coming, people will come, people have always come to this country, looking to arrive in cities where there are economic opportunities and where people from their culture already are. That always happens, and we've always made the space and figured it out.”

“What we saw here is a failure of the American spirit of generosity,” she reflected.

It’s a national issue playing out right in the neighborhood – literally here on the Upper West Side.

“I have a shelter [nearby] and it's full of families from everywhere. What was it that led [them] to take [their] kids and bring them here under these circumstances?” she wondered.

“You just don’t know, because whatever they're coming from is exponentially worse.”