Exclusive photos show how New Jersey is systematically shepherding asylum-seekers onto New York City-bound trains in the middle of the night — as Mayor Eric Adams’ plea for neighboring municipalities to help with the migrant crisis falls on deaf ears.
The images captured NJ Transit cops escorting migrants arriving in Trenton from Texas off their buses and onto trains bound for Manhattan’s Penn Station, from where they then head to the city’s main intake center.
The Garden State’s moves to avoid the out-of-control migrant mess sparked the ire of at least one Big Apple pol, whose borough has been inundated with hotels housing asylum-seekers.
“New Jersey absolutely should do something,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, a close Adams ally, told The Post on Thursday.
“New Jersey is going to have to be part of the solution,” he continued. “Are you going to put people on trains to New York forever? What if the migrants refuse to get on the train? Is New Jersey going to arrest them?”
The busload of asylum-seekers touching down in Trenton at around 10:50 p.m. Wednesday had no qualms about being escorted to New York City, according to the photos.
NJT cops met them as they got off the bus and provided them with instructions, before leading them to a transit center and put on board Manhattan-bound trains at around 11:20 p.m.
The trains arrived at Penn Station at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday. From there, the migrants got into waiting cars that transport them to the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown.
The hotel has served as the primary intake center for the more than 162,000 migrants who have arrived in the five boroughs since spring 2022, primarily from Texas, after crossing the US-Mexico border.
Adams began cracking down on charter bus companies bringing migrants from the Lone Star State to New York City by issuing an executive order limiting when and where they can drop off their passengers.
The companies instead started dropping off asylum-seekers in New Jersey towns — prompting local officials to start organizing their transfers to Manhattan via trains, which are exempt from Adams’ order.
“It has worked so far from our perspective but not from Eric Adams’ perspective,” Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora told The Post about the executive order.
“This is a national problem that needs to be resolved at the national level.”
State and local officials in New Jersey claim they don’t have the resources to handle the influx of migrants.
They also maintain New York has the federal aid to handle the crisis — despite the repeated refusal by the White House in recent months to help the Big Apple cope with the crunch of asylum seekers.
“New Jersey benefits from New York City last I checked,” Richards, the Queens borough president, fumed. “A lot of Jersey residents take advantage of jobs in New York… New York doesn’t have the resources either.”
Since Saturday, 12 buses have arrived in Trenton, New Jersey’s capital, carrying 526 migrants, some as young as 2.
Statewide, New Jersey has seen the arrival of 26 buses, as of Thursday morning, with nearly all 1,200 migrants on-board continuing on to New York.
“It’s a shame that they’ve become political pawns,” Mayor Gusciora said of the migrants. “I understand [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott’s position but unleashing them without a heads up or warning is unconscionable.”
At least one New York pol said she doesn’t blame New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy for making sure the asylum-seekers spend as little time as possible in his state.
“The governor of New Jersey is doing the right thing,” NY state Assemblywoman Jaime Williams (D-Brooklyn) told The Post.
“He has to protect the people of New Jersey. They’ll be a mirror of what’s happening in New York,” she said.
“This is a national problem,” Williams added. “Right now it’s a free-for-all. We’re not a third-world country. The Biden administration needs to do better.”
Murphy said his administration has been “in active consultation among ourselves and as well as with our colleagues in New York City and New York State” over the transfers.
“Our teams have continued to deliberate and speak,” he said. “We are obviously monitoring this very closely.”
Speaking to reporters Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she agreed with Adams’ executive order, which also requires bus companies to give the city 32 hours notice before dropping off migrants.
But Hochul dodged when asked if she was requesting that Murphy help share the brunt of the problem by keeping some of the migrants in his state.
“If they say their destination is New York City they cannot be held in New Jersey,” she told reporters at an unrelated press conference Thursday.
She also blamed New York City’s “right to shelter” law, which Adams has been pushing to get amended.
“My view is they are sending them to New York City because of the right to shelter [law],” Hochul said. “That’s the difference between New York City and New Jersey right now and that’s something the city and the City Council have the opportunity to deal with.”