Statement by Mayor Colleen Mahr
January 1, 2024
It has come to my attention that over the New Year’s weekend, Fanwood was one of several New Jersey municipalities where buses presumably carrying migrants from Texas arrived so they could be loaded onto trains to New York. The New Jersey Governor’s office, in remarks to the news media, has concluded this is an apparent attempt to bypass New York City’s new executive order restricting such bus arrivals to specific times during weekdays. The New Jersey Transit Police confirmed Fanwood was one of several locations. Other cities where buses arrived were Trenton, Jersey City and Secaucus.
I want to assure our residents that no one in Fanwood was informed ahead of time of the arrival of the buses and that as far as we can determine, none of those passengers remained in Fanwood. Assuming that these passengers were, indeed, migrants from Texas, I find it absolutely deplorable that they are being shuffled around like cattle. This is a humanitarian crisis in which the Governors of all affected states, the White House and Congress need to come together to find a solution.
