Bus company won’t ferry migrants from Texas to NYC after Adams lawsuit — as two other charters say they’ve also stopped
A charter bus company that’s been ferrying migrants from Texas to New York City has agreed to stop while the courts consider a lawsuit from Mayor Eric Adams claiming such firms should be on the hook for the spiraling costs of caring for asylum seekers.
The central Texas-based Roadrunner Charters Inc. was one of the principal bus companies that brought migrants either directly to New York or to train stations in New Jersey after Lone Star State officials flew them to Philadelphia in late December and early January, a City Hall rep said Wednesday.
But Roadrunner will no longer do that under the new agreement, which would bar the company from bringing migrants into the Big Apple in return for the city not seeking preliminary injunctive relief, the rep added.
At least two other companies Adams is suing told The Post they’re one step ahead of the mayor.
“We haven’t been in the program for a while — we only went to New York two times,” David Jones, the owner of Buckeye Coach LLC, said Wednesday.
“When New York brought up the requirements, we were ready to comply,” he continued. “We are not into the politics, all of this is crazy to us. We are just doing interstate commerce … They hire us, we do a run and that’s it.”
A representative for VLP Charters echoed this, saying they no longer have a contract to move migrants.
“When the mayor sent the letter, we haven’t continued anymore,” a company rep said.
The other companies either weren’t sure or didn’t pick up the phone when The Post tried to contact them.
“I am pleased to see that Roadrunner – one of the bus companies we sued for taking part in Texas Governor Abbott’s scheme to transport tens of thousands of migrants to our city in an attempt to overwhelm our shelter system and shift costs to New York City – has agreed to halt the bussing of migrants into and around New York City while the lawsuit proceeds,” Adams said in a statement.
“We call on all other bus companies involved in this suit to do the same,” he continued. “Reckless political games from the state of Texas will not be tolerated.”
The Adams administration filed a $700 million lawsuit against 17 busing companies back in early January, claiming they’ve hauled more than 33,000 migrants halfway across the country and dumped them at the Big Apple’s door since the spring of 2022.
The firms have earned millions of dollars from the endeavor, all while acting in “bad faith” to help along Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to send migrants from US-Mexico border to Democrat-run cities such as New York, Chicago and Denver, the Manhattan Supreme Court suit claimed.
The coach companies made about $1,650 per person transported — a bloated bill five times higher than the average rate for a one-way ticket to New York from Texas, Adams’ suit said.
“These companies have violated state law by not paying the cost of caring for these migrants, and that’s why we are suing to recoup approximately $700 million already spent to care for migrants sent here in the last two years by Texas,” Adams said at the time.
The city also wants the companies to pay the emergency shelter and service costs moving forward — and cover any future bills that might spring from Abbott’s plan, a spokesperson said.
The agreement with Roadrunner won’t affect New York’s ability to collect restitution should it win in court, City Hall added.
An attorney for Roadrunner could not immediately be reached Wednesday.
Nearly 185,000 migrants have arrived in New York since spring 2022, and the city is caring for about 65,000, according to city statistics. That includes about 1,300 new arrivals each week in recent weeks.
The mayor’s administration has said it has already spent about $3.5 billion on the migrant crisis. And it projects a price tag of $12 billion by the end of fiscal year 2025.
City officials said Texas was not named in the litigation because federal guidelines say states can’t sue each other without their consent.
Abbott has called the lawsuit “baseless.”
“It’s clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, or about the constitutional right to travel that has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Abbott said in a statement after the suit was announced.
“Every migrant bused or flown to New York City did so voluntarily, after having been authorized by the Biden Administration to remain in the United States.”
