A New Jersey mayor says immigrant buses bound for New York City have been stopping at his city’s train station and others in an apparent effort to evade an executive order by the New York mayor seeking to regulate how and when immigrants can be dropped off in the city.
Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli said Sunday that Hudson County officials had informed Secaucus police and city officials about buses arriving at the train station in Secaucus Junction starting Saturday. He said it is believed four buses arrived and dropped off immigrants who then took trains to New York City.
Gonnelli said the executive order recently signed by New York Mayor Eric Adams requires bus operators to give at least 32 hours advance notice of arrivals and limit drop-off times.
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“It seems quite clear that bus operators are finding a way to thwart the requirements of the executive order by dropping migrants off at the Secaucus train station and having them continue to their final destination,” Gonnelli said in a statement. He suggested the order may be “too strict” and is having “unintended consequences.”
Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli speaks during an interview in his office on June 15, 2023. Gonnelli says immigrant buses bound for New York City have been stopping at the city’s train station in a apparent effort to evade New York’s efforts to regulate immigrant arrivals. (KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)
Gonnelli called the tactic a “loophole” that bus operators have found to allow immigrants to reach New York City, adding that state police have reported that “this is happening now at train stations in the entire state.” Gonnelli promised to work with state and county officials and “continue to closely monitor this situation.”
A message posted on a Jersey City social media account said the city’s emergency management agency reports that “approximately 10 buses from various locations in Texas and one from Louisiana have arrived at various transit stations across the state, including Secaucus, Fanwood, Edison, Trenton.” Around 397 migrants had arrived at those locations since Saturday, according to Sunday’s newspaper.
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“This will clearly be a statewide conversation, so it is important that we wait for some guidance from the governor on next steps” as busing continues, the post said.
Tyler Jones, a spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, told lehighvalleylive.com that New Jersey is being used as a transit point for migrants, almost all of whom continued on to New York City. Jones said New Jersey officials are “coordinating closely with federal and local officials,” including our colleagues across the Hudson.
Last week, Adams joined the mayors of Chicago and Denver to renew calls for more federal aid and coordination with Texas over the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in their cities by bus and plane.
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“We cannot allow buses with people who need our help to arrive unannounced at any time of the day or night,” Adams said in a virtual news conference Wednesday with the other mayors. “This not only prevents us from providing assistance in an orderly manner, but endangers those who have already suffered” so much.
The Democratic mayors, who met last month with President Joe Biden, want more federal funding, efforts to expand work authorization and a bus arrival schedule. Cities have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to house, transport and provide medical care to migrants.
