(NewsNation) — New York City’s mayor says the city will continue taking in migrants bussed from Texas, citing a right-to-shelter policy.
“We are going to fulfil our moral and legal obligation to house everyone that enters New York City,” Mayor Eric Adams said on “PIX on Politics,” a production of NewsNation’s New York affiliate, WPIX.
In 1981, the city settled a lawsuit that had reached the state’s supreme court by decreeing that the city must provide beds to handle every man who needed one. It was later expanded to include women and children.
That promise has been tested over the last 41 years — including now. Adams says 11 emergency shelters have been opened to absorb the demand.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced to a cheering crowd that more buses were on their way to New York and Washington, D.C.
The Texas governor argues the two metropolises, among America’s largest, are dealing with a fraction of what small Texas towns along the border face daily.
“Why has he targeted New York City? We have done nothing to Texas,” Adams said. He called the program “just wrong.”
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has also decried the bussing program. She asked for the National Guard’s help to manage the influx, but the Pentagon rejected her request.
Abbott has implored the Biden administration to give Customs and Border Patrol more resources to manage the influx of migrants. He’s also asked for America to turn away more people at the border.
Adams has floated the possibility of retaliating by bringing New Yorkers to Texas and organizing grassroots efforts against Abbott’s reelection campaign. He’s facing former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke in November.
In his appearance on WPIX, Adams reiterated his support for something like that but offered no specifics.
“We are contemplating whatever we can do to get this type of governor out of office,” Adams said.