'A Humanitarian Crisis Created by Human Hands'
Florida’s recent flights ferrying 49 migrants by plane from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard have generated a lawsuit, a criminal investigation and national controversy. But the human impact of that episode is small compared with the busing programs the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have been operating since the spring to quickly transport migrants from the border states most affected by this year’s surge in illegal immigration.
As I wrote in The Wall Street Journal with Alicia Caldwell and Joe Barrett, nearly 13,000 people who have been transported to the other side of the country by state officials in Texas and Arizona. I went to New York City, where I talked to migrants along with photographer Oscar B. Castillo, who made beautiful pictures and helped with translation.
One person we met is Yordalis Bermudez, 22 years old, who arrived in New York late last month with her husband and infant son. She now lives in a hotel near Central Park that the city has converted into an emergency shelter. The journey was long, it’s hard to cook in the rooms and her husband is frustrated he’s not permitted to work.
“At the moment, I’m content, and all’s well,” she said. “I’m happy to have a roof.”
About half the people who entered the U.S. illegally since last October have been removed, most under a Covid-19-era policy known as Title 42 that allows the government to quickly turn back some migrants before they have a chance to ask for asylum or some other protection in the U.S.
The other approximately one million were released into the U.S. while they wait as long as several years for asylum claims to be adjudicated. They include families, unaccompanied children and people from countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, whose governments won’t allow them to return.
City and state officials have complained that there is no coordination with Texas or Arizona about when a bus will arrive. Instead, nonprofits and volunteers have set up informal networks to communicate about when and where buses are headed, said Johannes Favi, director of the Chicago immigrant transit-assistance program of the Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants.
The journey from Texas to New York usually takes about 48 hours, according to migrants and immigration advocates. There are stops roughly every six hours, to change drivers and let people move around. Some food is provided, migrants and advocates said. Instead of the Statue of Liberty, these migrants’ first views of New York include the eight-foot bronze of Ralph Kramden, the fictional bus driver posted on Eighth Avenue outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
There is no formal gate; buses chartered from the border pull up on 41st Street. Passengers walk inside to a designated area for a sort of social services triage: city officials and representatives from private charities provide food, medicine, new clothes and connections to shelter.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has said the asylum seekers are pushing the city’s shelter system toward its breaking point. I met two men from Venezuela — they were struggling to buy cigarettes because border agents took their ID when they crossed into Texas — who said they slept in a plaza outside a Manhattan shelter when they were told no beds were available.
City officials said Thursday that the city would erect tent cities—dubbed relief centers—to provide food, medical care and temporary housing for newly arrived migrants. The first will be at Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Adams has also said that he was considering using a cruise ship to house newcomers.
“This is a humanitarian crisis created by human hands,” the Democratic mayor said Tuesday. “And it was a political stunt.”
THE QUESTION: Yankee slugger Aaron Judge wears number 99. Who was the 99th judge appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, in 2012. California was the first state to allow marijuana for medicinal use, in 1996.