NYC NOW - January 5, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

The 1 train service is still in flux after Thursday’s derailment with 2 and 3 trains also impacted. MTA Chair Janno Leiber reminds commuters that derailments are rare, and train operators take precautions. Plus, Mayor Adams's administration is suing 17 bus companies for allegedly bringing migrants from Texas to New York City, seeking over $700 million for emergency care and shelter costs. The lawsuit responds to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's 2022 move to send migrants to Democratic-led sanctuary cities like New York. WNYC’s Sean Carlson sat with New Jersey reporter Elizabeth Kim who has been covering the story.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, January 5th. Here's the midday news from David First. One train service is still in flux after yesterday's derailment. At the moment, trains are not running between the 137th Street City College Stop and Times Square, but that could change over the course of the day. Two and three trains in Manhattan are also impacted. Despite the incident, M.T.E.

chair, Jan O'Leber, reminds commuters that derailments are rare, and train operators take precautions. Trains are not supposed to run into each other ever, but there's a reason that this was low-speed collision, and people should feel comfortable getting back on the train and getting where they need to go. An empty out-of-service train bumped a passenger train after it blew a signal, but the MTA says it's still unclear exactly why that happened. The National Transportation Safety Board is also now investigating the incident. Over 20 people were hurt, although none had life-threatening. injuries. Stay close. There's more after the break. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. Mayor Adams administration is suing 17 bus companies for allegedly carrying migrants to the city

from Texas. The lawsuit seeks more than $700 million. The city says will recoup the cost of providing emergency care and shelter to the tens of thousands of people sent to New York under the program. Texas Governor Greg Abbott began sending the buses in 2022 to shift the the cost of migrant care onto so-called sanctuary cities led by Democrats like New York and Chicago. WIC's Elizabeth Kim has been covering this story. She joins us now. Hey, Liz. Hey, Sean. Can you briefly walk us through the lawsuit and what the city is contending here? So the complaint accuses these bus companies in participating in what the city describes as Abbott's, quote, bad faith plan with, quote, evil intent. tensions. Specifically, the city is referring to the Texas governor's campaign to send tens of thousands of

vulnerable migrants, which he said is meant to highlight President Biden's failed border policy. Basically, the city is arguing that Governor Abbott has publicly made it known that this is what he's doing and that the bus operators are helping him implement it and are profiting from it. Now, the heart of the city's case essentially revolves around the state's social services law. What does that law say? This is a section of New York's social services law. It essentially says that anyone who knowingly brings a non-citizen into the state who will primarily have to rely on government assistance must pay for their expenses or transport them out of the state. So basically it's a law that seeks to discuss.

discourage people from forcing the state to shoulder the burden of, you know, very needy and poor immigrants. The court papers go on to cite a 19th century case that it says establishes precedent for this kind of legal action. Now, we're focusing on Texas here, but how big of a part does Texas play in the city's current migrant crisis? The lawsuit puts the figure at 33,000, but we know that that's not the only place that they are coming from, right? So can we expect to any other lawsuits? Well, that's yet unclear. Abbott is certainly the most prominent public official

who's been sending migrants to New York City, but you're right, he's not alone. And yes, although the route through Texas is one that is widely taken by many migrants, it's not the only one. Some migrants have flown directly into New York City. Some who come through Texas pay for their own transport into the city or they're funded by non-profit.

some are coming from other states. So it's not as if a lawsuit will stop all migrants from coming to New York City. You know, all told, there's been more than 161,000 migrants that have come here since the spring of 2022. This all comes a little more than a week or so since the mayor attempted to limit the arrival of migrant buses at the Port Authority bus terminal. How is that going? Not very well. So some bus operators are circumventing the. rules. They're bringing migrants to New Jersey. Yesterday, I was told that there were at least 10

buses carrying migrants that arrived in Jersey. And, you know, the day before that, the mayor's chief counsel acknowledged that no buses from Texas had complied with the order so far. Has Governor Abbott or any of the bus companies, for that matter, responded to the lawsuit? So we've reached out to the governor's office and we're yet to hear back. But we should note that this is not the first time Abbott is being sued. over his migrant policies. In fact, just yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department sued Texas for a new rule that allows police to arrest migrants crossing into the country illegally in that state. But Abbott doesn't seem to be backing down. Like, after the Justice Department lawsuit was filed, he put out a statement on social media saying, quote, I like my chances. That's W&MIC's Liz Kim. Liz, thank you so much.

Thanks, Sean. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.