New Jersey authorities reported that several buses of immigrants from the southern border are arriving at train stations from where the illegal immigrants continue their journey to New York , avoiding the restrictions imposed by the City's mayor, Eric Adams . At the moment, the entry of 10 of these vehicles and almost 400 illegal ones have been registered in different locations .
3/4 Approx 397 migrants have arrived at these locations since 12/30. NJ Transit is apparently the receiving agency, and there was a conf call between state police/NJT earlier today, which local governments were not part of.
— City of Jersey City (@JerseyCity) December 31, 2023
Criticism of Adams' measures
According to Jersey City, since the implementation of Adams' measures, 10 buses from Texas and one from Louisiana, with some 397 migrants, arrived at the Fanwood, Edison and Trenton stations in just 48 hours. The mayor of Secaucus, Michael Gonnelli, claimed to have received at least four of these vehicles, the first of them on December 30.
The councilor issued a statement indicating that they were alerted to this situation by the Hudson County Executives Office, and assured that it is a situation that is repeated in other parts of New Jersey. In the note, Gonnelli criticized the "too strict" requirements imposed by Adams , which he pointed out as the cause of this situation, in addition to questioning their effectiveness in light of the facts:
It seems pretty clear that bus operators are finding a way to thwart the requirements of the Executive Order by dropping migrants off at the Secaucus train station and having them continue to their final destination. Perhaps the requirements set by Mayor Adams are too strict and are leading to unintended consequences, as it appears that bus operators have discovered a loophole in the system in order to ensure that migrants reach their final destination, which It's New York City. According to state police reports, this is happening at train stations across the state.
The mayor noted that the state of New Jersey is working on a coordinated response , in which affected localities, such as Secaucus itself, will participate. Gonnelli also pointed out that immigrants are getting tickets to travel to the Big Apple after adding an extra stop to their journey through the country. "I have been informed that the State of New Jersey has a plan in place and we will work closely with the Governor's office, all law enforcement agencies, and the County to monitor this situation. At this time, it appears that train tickets are being obtained for the migrants and that they are heading to their final destination. We will continue to closely monitor this situation," said the councilor.
