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“This is horrific,” New York City mayor says of Greg Abbott’s policy as second busload of migrants from Texas arrives
August 08, 2022
By Sneha Dey, The Texas Tribune
Aug. 7, 2022
When a second busload of migrants arrived in New York City from the Texas border on Sunday, Mayor Eric Adams was there to greet them — and again slam Gov. Greg Abbott for the move.
“This is horrific, when you think about what the governor is doing,” Adams said at the Port Authority bus terminal, where 14 migrants were dropped off early Sunday morning, Politico reported.
Officials had expected 40 people to be on the bus, but Adams said some migrants appear to have gotten off at other stops along the route. Adams said some migrants were forced onto the bus, including families who wanted to go to locations other than New York, according to Politico.
Since April, Abbott has been sending newly arrived migrants to Democratic-leaning cities on the East Coast to put pressure on the Biden administration to secure the southwest border. More than 6,000 migrants have arrived in Washington, D.C., from Texas, prompting Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser to ask the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy the National Guard to help with the migrants. CNN reported Friday morning that the Pentagon has denied Bowser’s request.
On Friday, Abbott announced that buses would start going to New York City; 50 migrants arrived in the city on Friday.
“In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Abbott said in a statement. “I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief."
Last week, Adams announced emergency measures to increase shelter capacity for asylum-seekers. New York’s shelter system receives more than 100 asylum-seekers who are looking for some form of housing each day, which has put a strain on the city’s shelter system.
“What Gov. Abbott is doing is cruel, misleading people,” Manuel Castro, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in New York, told Politico. “But we won’t fall for these scare tactics, and we are going to make sure asylum-seekers have the resources and support they need here in New York.”
Abbott, who is running for reelection, has been sparring with Democratic mayors over their immigration policies for months. The Republican governor said the busing of migrants will provide “much-needed relief to overwhelmed local communities along the border.” But critics of Abbott say he is using migrants as pawns in a cynical plot that does little to actually solve border problems.
The program is voluntary for migrants, and the state pays for the buses. Abbott’s office has said migrants transported to other cities have already been processed and released by the Department of Homeland Security.
Abbott also invited Adams and Bowser on Monday to visit the state’s southern border to “see the humanitarian crisis firsthand.” Adams’ office dismissed the invitation.
Disclosure: Politico has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/07/migrants-bus-texas-new-york-city/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
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Former US diplomat Bill Richardson said Sunday that he was "optimistic" about efforts to negotiate a "two for two" prisoner swap with Russia that would free US basketball star Brittney Griner and another American.
Richardson, a former ambassador to the UN, has negotiated the release of several Americans held in other countries. Reports last month said he was expected to travel to Russia for talks over Griner, who on Thursday was sentenced to nine years in prison on a drug charge.
While insisting Sunday that he is only a "catalyst" in any negotiations, Richardson's mention of a "two-for-two" swap including Griner suggested inside knowledge.
"My view is, I'm optimistic," he told ABC's "This Week."
"I think she's going to be freed, I think she has the right strategy of contrition, there's going to be a prisoner swap -- though I think it will be two for two, involving Paul Whelan."
Whelan is a former US Marine who was convicted of espionage in June 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He has insisted on his innocence.
His case and Griner's have been enmeshed in the deep US-Russia tensions since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February.
But recent comments from both sides -- including from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov -- have suggested signs of movement, and US President Joe Biden has faced repeated calls to arrange a deal.
Reports suggested that Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, known as the "Merchant of Death," might be freed in exchange for Griner and Whelan. The Kremlin has long sought his release.
But Richardson's mention of a "two for two" swap raises questions about who the second Russian in the equation might be.
And some Americans have asked why Marc Fogel, a US citizen serving a 14-year sentence in Russia on marijuana charges -- which he said he had for medicinal purposes -- has not been mentioned.
Griner was sentenced Thursday to nine years in a Russian penal colony and ordered to pay a fine of one million rubles ($16,590) for smuggling narcotics.
She was arrested at a Moscow airport for possessing vape cartridges with a small amount of cannabis oil.
The 31-year-old, who was in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury, said the substance was prescribed by a US doctor to relieve pain.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and Women's NBA champion pleaded guilty but said she did not intend to break the law.
Richardson is a prominent Democrat, having served in the US Congress, as governor of New Mexico, and both as UN envoy and energy secretary in the Bill Clinton administration.
Since then, he has worked as a discreet go-between in several sensitive hostage talks with foreign countries, including North Korea. In November 2021 he helped secure the release of US journalist Danny Fenster from a prison in Myanmar.
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London's under-fire police force strip-searched more than 600 children over a two-year period, most of them black boys, according to new data released Monday.
England's commissioner for children, Rachel de Souza, said she was "deeply shocked" by the figures after obtaining them from the Metropolitan police.
De Souza's request came after Britain's biggest police force was forced to apologize in March over the case of "Child Q", which has sparked an investigation for gross misconduct into four officers.
The 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by female officers in 2020 after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis, despite them being aware she was menstruating.
She was searched without an "appropriate adult" present, and neither was an adult in attendance in 23 percent of the cases unearthed by de Souza.
In total, 650 minors aged 10-17 were strip-searched by Met officers between 2018 and 2020, she found.
More than 95 percent were boys, and 58 percent of the 650 were described by the officer as being black.
De Souza said she was "extremely concerned" at the ethnic imbalance, and said Child Q may be part of a bigger "systemic problem around child protection" in the Met.
The figures had gone up sharply year after year, she said, and showed that a significant number of children "are being subjected to this intrusive and traumatizing practice each year".
The London force has been rocked in recent years by a succession of incidents involving officers, including last year, when a diplomatic protection squad member was jailed for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
A crisis of public confidence in the police saw Cressida Dick resign as Met commissioner in February.
In response to de Souza's findings, the Met said it had already instituted changes "to ensure children subject to intrusive searches are dealt with appropriately and respectfully".
Some children may themselves be a "vulnerable victim of exploitation" by gangsters and drug criminals, it conceded.
London mayor Sadiq Khan redoubled his criticism of the Met after slamming the force over the Child Q case and other incidents.
It was "deeply concerning" that so many body searches were happening without an adult present, a spokesman for Khan said.
"And there remain serious wider issues with regard to disproportionality and the use of stop and search on young black boys," the spokesman said.
© 2022 AFP
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