Buses from Texas are leaving migrants who entered the U.S. illegally at train stations across New Jersey after New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued an emergency order late last month with strict requirements and limits on buses bringing illegal immigrants.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) says the migrants are taking the train into New York City. While Democrat-led sanctuary cities have been overwhelmed by the flow of migrants on buses from the southern border, the Big Apple is bearing the brunt of the illegal immigrant surge.
“Our Administration has tracked the recent arrival of a handful [of] buses of migrant families at various NJ TRANSIT train stations,” a Murphy spokesperson said in a statement to Politico. “New Jersey is primarily being used as a transit point for these families — all or nearly all of them continued with their travels en route to their final destination of New York City.
New Jersey used as 'transit point' for migrant buses headed for NYC after new executive order, governor says https://t.co/36wflbq4xk
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 2, 2024
“We are closely coordinating with our federal and local partners on this matter, including our colleagues across the Hudson, the spokesperson added.
Secaucus, New Jersey Mayor Michael Gonnelli said in a statement: “It seems quite clear the bus operators are finding a way to thwart the requirements of the [New York City] Executive Order by dropping migrants at the train station in Secaucus and having them continue to their final destination.”
Meanwhile, Edison, New Jersey Mayor Sam Joshi warned he will send arriving migrants back to the border if the buses bring them to Edison. His approach echoes that taken by Chicago suburbs in Rockford, Illinois, facing the same problem of migrant buses landing outside of a major metro to skirt local restrictions. Rockford is removing 355 recent migrant arrivals.
BREAKING: The Democrat Mayor of Edison, New Jersey has chartered buses to deport illegal migrants back to the Southern Border claiming that the police couldn't identify them and couldn't tell if they had weapons or not pic.twitter.com/fEAVPQ105c
— George (@BehizyTweets) January 2, 2024
The New York City restriction on migrant arrivals has only made problems worse for New Jersey. While Gov. Murphy promised as a candidate in 2017 that he would make the Garden State a “sanctuary state,” the governor appeared on television in September to plead with illegal aliens that his state could no longer harbor new arrivals.
It has been 12 months since President Joe Biden last visited the border with Mexico. It was his first and only visit to the southern border since becoming president.