New York City sued 17 transportation companies that brought migrants to the city from Texas, seeking to recoup the $700 million the city has spent on those migrants’ care. The suit relies on a law requiring anyone “who knowingly brings, or causes to be brought, a needy person from out of the state into this state for the purpose of making him a public charge” to transport that person out of the state or pay for his or her care. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending migrants for more than a year. The lawsuit said at least 33,600 migrants have been sent to New York City from Texas since the spring of 2022, reports the Wall Street Journal. Abbott called the lawsuit baseless. “Every migrant bused or flown to New York City did so voluntarily, after having been authorized by the Biden administration to remain in the United States,” the governor said, adding, "They have constitutional authority to travel across the country that Mayor Adams is interfering with.”
Operation Lone Star, part of Abbott’s effort to confront the flow of migrants at the southern U.S. border, also has bused 28,000 migrants to Chicago, 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C., 3,400 to Philadelphia, 13,800 to Denver and 1,300 to Los Angeles. Texas has started sending migrants by plane after Chicago and New York imposed new rules on where and when bus operators can drop them off. On Wednesday, the Biden administration sued Texas, arguing that a new law allowing the state to arrest and deport migrants who cross into the state illegally is an unconstitutional violation of the federal government’s authority. The federal government controls international borders and immigration enforcement.