The Big Apple was whacked with a lawsuit this week over the alleged “political theatre” of its failed $700 million lawsuit against bus companies for hauling migrants from Texas to New York City.
Roadrunner Charters Inc. — one of the 17 bus businesses that Adams sued last year for ferrying 33,000 migrants to the Big Apple — fired back with its own suit Wednesday, claiming the mayor’s case was “frivolous” and unconstitutionally interfered with its business.
Roadrunner, which is based in central Texas, is seeking unspecified damages from the city for the suit that “was no more than political theatre” meant to distract the public from the “inadequacies” of federal immigration policies, the court papers allege.
The mayor’s suit from January 2024 sought to put the bus companies on the hook for the hundreds of millions of dollars it cost the city to take care of the migrants transported by the companies.
But in July, a Manhattan judge tossed out the city’s suit, finding it unconstitutional, in part because it was based on a 19th-century “pauper’s statute” which was already found unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court decades ago.
The city’s case forced Roadrunner in March to halt ferrying the migrants halfway across the county as it had been doing since the spring of 2022 and threatened to run the company out of business by seeking the massive damages, Roadrunner’s Manhattan federal court suit claims.
The city violated Roadrunner’s constitutional right to carry out interstate commerce and transportation, the complaint claims.
The new case “is an effort to discourage the filing of frivolous lawsuits by the city that impact private entities who have nothing to do with immigration policy,” plaintiff lawyer Robert Hantman told The Post.
“The judge is to be commended for her well-written opinion,” Hantman said of Rosado’s July dismissal of the Adams’ case.
Adams, in his suit at the time, claimed the coach companies allegedly made a bloated profit of roughly $1,650 per person transported — five times more than the average rate for a one-way ticket to New York from Texas.
A spokesperson with City Hall said: “At the height of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, Texas and several bus companies were irresponsibly trying to exhaust our social services system by busing thousands of migrants to New York City with no notice.
“The city brought the lawsuit to fight these efforts, stop the blatant disregard for migrants’ wellbeing, and preserve the city’s ability to serve everyone in our care. We will review the filing.”
The migrant crisis has been a constant presence in headlines since President Trump took office, signing executive orders, including one attempting to do away with birthright citizenship, as part of his agenda to crack down on illegal immigration.
Trump’s Justice Department on Friday tossed the criminal corruption case against Adams with hopes the mayor will focus on curbing the migrant crisis in New York City.
