Mayor Eric Adams exploring idea of using NYPD to stop Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's ploy of busing asylum seekers to N.J.
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams has upped the ante in his game of high-stakes poker with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the busing of thousands of asylum seekers to New York City.
Call it Texas justice, New York style.
Adams is exploring the possibility of sending the NYPD to thwart Abbott's latest ploy of dumping asylum seekers at New Jersey train stations to avoid the mayor's executive order limiting the hours buses of can arrive here.
Watch Elijah Westbrook's report
It was finger pointing time at the O.K. Corral after Abbott thought he got the better of Adams by finding a way to thwart his executive order. Adams called him a bully. Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy likened him to the Joker in "The Dark Knight" Batman movie.
"There's a line in it that some men can't be reasoned with or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. Greg Abbott is that man," Levy said.
So what exactly is a frustrated mayor to do after Abbott ordered buses to let migrants off at New Jersey train stations to ignore the mayor's executive order that limits bus arrivals here to weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and noon.
"Have you thought about the idea of of sending NYPD officers to stop the buses from letting people off at these places in New Jersey," CBS New York's Marcia Kramer asked the mayor.
"We're dealing with a bully right now and everything is on the table that conforms with the law. Our legal team, our corporate counsel and my special counsel here, they have spent the entire holiday weekend looking at very available option to us," Adams said.
READ MORE: New Jersey towns becoming stopping points for asylum seekers headed to New York City, mayors say
In addition to sending his own gunslingers, the mayor said he is also asking officials at every New Jersey community with a train or bus station to issue executive orders similar to his, and he has also asked New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to join the crusade.
"What Texas is doing is bonkers," said Lisa Zornberg, chief counsel to the mayor. "They have tried to shut off communications so that we have ghost buses, buses that are arriving en masse any time of day, any time of night, on the weekends when we are least able as a city to staff and meet any emergent needs of people coming of buses."
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is four square in the mayor's corner in issuing the executive order.
"I absolutely support what the mayor did. I thought it made sense," Hochul said. "If the governor of Texas is going to spend his nights trying to thwart our rules in our city, then we'll find other ways to address it."
A spokesperson for Gov. Abbott fired back, calling Adams a hypocrite, adding the mayor also took to busing asylum seekers, sending them, to various upstate towns and cities.
