'Absolutely deplorable': Migrants dropped at Central Jersey train stations to avoid NYC limits

Hundreds of immigrants were being dropped off at New Jersey train stations, including in Middlesex and Union counties, to bypass new charter busing restrictions ordered by New York City Mayor Eric Adams who said previous migrant arrivals are overwhelming city services, New Jersey officials said.

Like many large cities across the country, New York has seen a significant surge in migrants arriving from the southern border, including thousands on buses chartered by Texas officials. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he has now dispersed nearly 100,000 migrants to Democrat-run cities nationally under Operation Lone Star.

In December, New York City recorded 14,700 migrant arrivals, including 14 buses in a single night. New York City officials said they've processed about 161,000 migrants over the past several months. Officials in New York, Chicago and Denver have been struggling to accommodate the migrants, many of whom are arriving with no support systems, housing or money, and overwhelming emergency shelters.

In New York, Adams last week issued an executive order restricting on where and when buses carrying migrants can drop off passengers in the city. Within days, bus drivers began dropping passengers at New Jersey train stations instead, officials said.

At least four buses transporting migrants destined for New York City arrived at the train station at Secaucus Junction, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli said Sunday. Secaucus police and town officials were told about the buses by Hudson County officials, the statement said. Officials say the migrants generally volunteer to ride the buses out of Texas.

“It seems quite clear the bus operators are finding a way to thwart the requirements of the executive order by dropping migrants at the train station in Secaucus and having them continue to their final destination,” Gonnelli said in a statement.

“Perhaps the requirements Mayor Adams put in place are too stringent and are resulting in unexpected consequences as it seems the bus operators have figured out a loophole in the system in order to ensure the migrants reach their final destination, which is New York City."

New Jersey State Police said it's been happening across the state, Gonnell said. A social media account associated with Jersey City reported that 10 buses from Texas and one from Louisiana have arrived at New Jersey train stations, including in Fanwood, Edison and Trenton. There were an estimated 397 migrants.

Edison Mayor Sam Joshi said he became aware of Gov. Abbott of Texas again transporting illegal migrants to cities all across the nation.

"I want to be very clear – if any bus, train or plane of illegal migrants come to Edison, I have instructed our law enforcement and emergency management departments to charter a bus to transport the illegal migrants right back to the southern Texas/Mexican border," Joshi said in a Facebook post.

"Over the years I have expressed my disagreement with the concept of ‘sanctuary’ cities and states and I won't allow Edison to be subjected to its consequences. Our border policies need to be strengthened to stop illegal migrants from entering our country. Edison is a municipality with a significant immigrant population and I will continue to support only legal immigration," Joshi's post said.

Seth Kaper-Dale, co-pastor of The Reformed Church of Highland Park and founder of RCHP-Affordable Housing Corp. which through its Interfaith-RISE program worked with more than 4,000 new immigrant arrivals in Central and South Jersey last year, challenged the Edison mayor’s comments, labeling them as “anti-immigrant.”

“I'd like (Edison Mayor Joshi) to know that we've helped north of 100 immigrants get housing in Edison in the past year – and some came across the southern border,” Kaper-Dale said. “To be sure, lots of the 4,000 we've worked with knew to whom they were going, but so too do many of those taking the 'free buses' paid by the mayors and governors of the south. Lots of folks are coming to this region to be absorbed into their immigrant families and communities that have been here for a couple of decades.”

Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr said she learned that over the New Year’s weekend, Fanwood was one of several New Jersey municipalities where buses presumably carrying migrants from Texas arrived so they could be loaded onto trains to New York.

"The New Jersey Governor’s office, in remarks to the news media, has concluded this is an apparent attempt to bypass New York City’s new executive order restricting such bus arrivals to specific times during weekdays. The New Jersey Transit Police confirmed Fanwood was one of several locations. Other cities where buses arrived were Trenton, Jersey City and Secaucus," Mahr said in a statement posted on the borough's website.

"I want to assure our residents that no one in Fanwood was informed ahead of time of the arrival of the buses and that as far as we can determine, none of those passengers remained in Fanwood. Assuming that these passengers were, indeed, migrants from Texas, I find it absolutely deplorable that they are being shuffled around like cattle. This is a humanitarian crisis in which the Governors of all affected states, the White House and Congress need to come together to find a solution," Mahr said.

Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s office, said his administration has tracked a "handful" of buses with migrant families that arrived at "various NJ Transit train stations.”

"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,” Jones said, noting that the state is working with local and federal partners on the matter, including “our colleagues across the Hudson.”

Adams' order requires charter bus operators carrying migrants to alert officials at least 32 hours in advance, and limit drop-offs to weekday mornings in a specific location. Adams said middle-of-the-night drop-offs hurt migrants because they're arriving when there's few city services to immediately assist them.

"We need federal and state help to resettle and support the remaining 68,000 migrants currently in New York City’s care and the thousands of individuals who continue to arrive every single week..." Adams said in a statement.

New York City cracks down NYC, long a sanctuary city, will restrict buses carrying migrants from Texas

Abbott, a Republican, launched the Operation Lone Star busing effort in April 2022, arguing self-declared sanctuary cities like New York, Chicago and Denver should help shoulder the burden of assisting migrants, instead of forcing Texas to pay for managing immigrants traveling across the southern border.

When announcing his busing restrictions last week, Adams accused Abbot of turning migrants into political pawns, particularly by sending them to northern cities without cold-weather clothing.

"Gov. Abbott has made it clear he wants to destabilize cities, sending thousands of migrants and asylum seekers here to the city," Adams said. "I have to navigate the city out of it."

Kaper-Dale, the immigrant advocate, offered advice to state and federal officials handling migrant arrivals.

“We could realize the economic growth potential in the newly arriving population,” he said. “Lots of these individuals are coming with I-94s and can work. Others can work 150 days after filing for asylum. Our organization has been hugely successful helping people find work and we have employers who rely on us to keep the economic engine going in their companies. And lots of these employees came across the southern border in the past 12 months. The Department of Labor and Chambers of Commerce should be seeing great potential here.”

“People who come here, like all immigrant populations, are driven people – and that builds us up … it doesn't tear us down," Kaper-Dale added. "Only fear will do that.

There could be real challenges if we pretend this bus matter is 'somebody else’s problem' and don't acknowledge that we have lots of immigrant arrivals right now, whether or not they come on somebody's charter bus.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Migrants dropped at Edison, Fanwood NJ train stations to avoid NYC