Jan 04, 2024 at 11:33 PM
The American city of New York filed a lawsuit against seventeen bus companies on Thursday. They allegedly violated a New York state law by transporting more than 33,000 migrants from Texas to the city.
The large-scale bus movements are part of a campaign by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott to drive out people from his state who have entered the US illegally.
Abbott sent about 80,000 migrants with free bus rides to Democratic cities in 2023, news agency reports AP. Texas signed charter agreements with various bus companies to this end.
New York is demanding 708 million dollars (about 647 million euros) from the bus operators. New York is said to have incurred those costs over the past two years to provide housing and other services to Texas migrants.
The bus companies are being sued under a nineteenth-century law. It stipulates that anyone transporting an “indigent person” to New York who is “likely to require public assistance” must cover costs incurred by the state.
Planes instead of buses
At the end of December last year, Abbott sent about 120 migrants on planes to Chicago. He did this in response to stricter rules for bus companies in that state.
They could face harsher penalties if they fail to drop off migrants at a designated location or fail to complete the correct paperwork.
The White House criticized the flight and accused Abbott of using migrants for political purposes. “Once again Governor Abbott shows how little regard or respect he has for people,” a spokesperson said at the time.
Abbott is not the only Republican sending immigrants to Democratic states. For example, Florida sent two planes to California in the spring of 2023. In 2022, Republican senator and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis already sent migrants by plane to the island of Martha’s Vineyard in the Democratic state of Massachusetts.
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Beeld: Getty Images
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2024-01-04 22:33:11
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