Mayor Adams ordered migrant buses to warn NYC of their arrival. Only 3 did.

Mayor Eric Adams had a warning for bus operators transporting thousands of migrants to New York City: We will fine and sue you if you don’t warn us you’re coming.

But only three buses seem to have responded to his December mandate, according to newly released public records.

Adams issued an executive order late last year, requiring buses transporting migrants to alert city officials 32 hours ahead of their arrival and limited the hours those buses could enter the city. It was among a series of measures the city took to slow the arrival of roughly 170,000 migrants to the five boroughs since April 2022.

But emails obtained by Gothamist through a Freedom of Information request show that only three buses gave notice of their arrival in January, including two that listed the number of migrants on board as required by City Hall.

A Texas-based bus employee who sent the notices on behalf of Lily’s Bus Lines and Transportes Regiomontanos, Inc., also told Gothamist the system the Adams administration set up wasn’t initially working for those who wanted to follow the rules.

City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak confirmed the city has only received a handful of notices but said many buses never arrived. She added that fewer buses have been coming and few, if any, have violated the new measures. The city stopped tracking buses arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal last summer.

Mamelak said Adams’ executive order was meant to “reduce the inhumane way people were coming here,” referring to instances where migrant families arrived at all hours of the day, poorly dressed for cold weather conditions, sending city employees and volunteers scrambling to find them shelter.

But the arrivals are “no longer happening in a manner” that they were, Mamelak said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending migrants to New York City and other northern states in 2022, testing the city’s progressive politics and often putting Adams, a moderate Democrat, at odds with his party on immigration and U.S. border security. The 66,800 migrants who are living in emergency shelters are also testing the city’s safety net system and its decadeslong law guaranteeing a shelter bed to anyone who requests one.

Some bus companies began dropping migrants off in New Jersey to avoid complying with Adams’ new rules.

Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, said 78 buses carrying more than 3,000 migrants have arrived in the state since December. A majority of new arrivals boarded trains to the city, but 370 newcomers made other travel arrangements or were picked up by family members, he said.

Jones said the frequency of buses has also slowed down in the state.

“We continue to closely coordinate with our federal and local partners on this matter, including our colleagues across the Hudson,” he said.

We try to be on the side of the authorities but unfortunately they paid us with being sued and threatened.

Baltazar Hernandez, director of security for Lily’s Bus Lines and Transportes Regiomontanos, Inc.

Adams’ executive order instructed bus operators to email the Commissioner of Emergency Management with a total number of passengers on board who arrived in the U.S. within the last 90 days, detailing how many are single adults or members of a family, how many are children and if known, how many are seeking emergency shelter.

Adams’ order also requested a description and license plate of the bus to help city employees identify the vehicle. Adams previously said that failure to comply with the city’s new measure could result in misdemeanor charges, lawsuits, fines and bus impounding.

Only two bus companies sent in the total number of passengers with expected arrival times, records show. One notice showed 37 passengers on board, including 22 men, 10 women and five children arriving Jan. 4.

Another notice showed 39 passengers with nine men, 16 women and 14 children arriving Jan. 12.

Both notices were sent by Baltazar Hernandez, the director of security for Lily’s Bus Lines and Transportes Regiomontanos, Inc. based in Texas. He said he wanted to comply with the rules but when he initially tried emailing the city, the emails bounced back.

“I had sent it two times, two times it came back,” he told Gothamist in Spanish. “They asked for the information, but the email was never activated.”

Mamelak said the email issue was quickly addressed.

Hernandez said he also sent copies to New Jersey as required by Murphy in a letter he sent bus companies and those emails went through.

“They even returned the emails and thanked us for our support,” he added.

Hernandez said there’s one part of Adams’ rules they can’t follow: they don’t ask their passengers where they will stay or if they need shelter because that’s outside the scope of their services and is considered confidential information.

A third email was sent by a group called “Border Patrol Ops” from a gmail account listing the name of the bus driver, arrival time and license plate but no list of passengers. An email sent to that account seeking comment last week was not returned.

Migrant bus restrictions have also been implemented in other cities, like Chicago.

Adams is suing 17 bus companies for carrying out Abbott’s orders and accusing them of transporting migrants in “bad faith” and with the “evil intention” of passing on the cost of their care to New York City. The city's seeking $708 million in damages, according to the suit.

“We try to be on the side of the authorities but unfortunately they paid us with being sued and threatened,” said Hernandez, whose employer, Transportes Regiomontanos, is named in the city’s lawsuit. “We specialize in transportation and want to do a good service of transporting passengers well. We’re very pressured by the demands by Chicago and New York for giving a service?”