In October 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams's senior assistant emailed two White House officials to set off the alert.

Thinking Wrong.Photo byDiane PicchiottinoonUnsplash

At the moment, at least six buses carrying migrants from the southern border were arriving in New York City. Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbott and other leaders from the red state rented a large number of the buses as a political protest.

A month prior, Bronx-born Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested that "far-right politicians" were abusing refugees by committing "crimes against humanity." Buses bound for her office made sense as a potential sign of a Republican turnabout.

But the buses weren't going to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's office. The city's Emergency Management office stated it received a tip indicating as much, but after additional inquiry, it "eventually found it unfounded" in response to a local news agency Gothamist's questions concerning the buses it had allegedly seized.

Federal Open Records Request

Through a federal open records request, local news agency Gothamist was able to receive 88 pages of correspondence between officials from New York City and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including this particular email.

Between the late summer of 2022 and the spring of 2023, they signify the beginning of a wave of migrant arrivals that will strain the city's resources and strain its shelter system to the breaking point. Many of the migrants will be forced to live in close quarters and move from shelter to shelter without much notice.

Behind The Scene Look At The Mayhem

The documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at the mayhem that resulted from other state and local government officials, including those in the Democratic-led city of El Paso, sending migrants to New York City by the busload.

This caused state, local, and federal officials to scramble to find enough shelter space to accommodate the tens of thousands of new arrivals. Furthermore, the documents imply that Gov. Abbott's tactic, which aimed to humiliate blue-state politicians by forcing them to deal with a sudden and massive influx of people, was effective.