Lawsuit. The city is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from at least 17 bus companies. We want to go now to Lizette Nunez who’s been taking a look at this lawsuit with what we should know. Good morning, Lizette. Good morning, Dan and Tashani. Well, the Adams administration is accusing the bus companies of carrying out Texas Governor Abbott’s plan and moving migrants across the country. So far, to date, the city has spent more than $3 billion on the migrant crisis and Mayor Adams believes the company should foot part of that bill.

Shout out to Brian Hunter on cash app. I appreciate you, big dog. Our administration filed a lawsuit against 17 companies that have taken part in Texas Governor Greg Abbot’s scheme to transport tens of thousands of migrants to New York City. I think Greg Adams is an idiot. I think Greg Adams is absolutely, positively an idiot. An idiot. I think he’s barking up the wrong tree. He needs to spend more time.

You can solve for this problem by not designating yourself as a sanctuary city. A, you advocated for it. You’re going to spend literally millions of dollars inside of a courtroom because I think that Greg Abbot he about that life and you’re going to find out the hard way. I think that Greg Adams is quite, I mean, Eric Adams is quite possibly one of the dumbest mayors that y’all elected in recent history.

The Adams administration taking legal action against the companies that have been dropping off migrants in the Big Apple since spring of 2022. The city seeking $708,000,000 in damages that have gone towards housing and feeding asylum seekers. Governor Abbott’s continuing use of migrants as political pawns is not only chaotic and in. Somebody said you’re remixing names. I’m sorry. It’s a mistake. Y’all got it. Listen, you know what I mean? You know what I mean.

Maine. But makes clear he puts politics over people. The 14 page lawsuit accuses the bus companies of violating New York social services law by acting in bad faith and moving individuals who are in need of care while profiting from the cris. Shout out to P. Shane. Migrants that have been flown or bused to New York City did so voluntarily, writing in part, this lawsuit is baseless and deserves to be sanctioned.

It’s clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce clause of the US Constitution. Talk to him, Greg, talk to him. He said, man, this idiot mayor don’t know nothing about the Commerce clause inside of the US Constitution or about the constitutional right to travel that has been recognized by the US Supreme Court. This comes as just last week, Adams issued an executive order that sets limits on migrant arrivals, including requiring bus companies to issue a 32 hours notice before dropping off migrants in New York City.

The executive order has largely been ignored. Bus companies instead have been dropping off migrants in New Jersey. New Jersey state police have reportedly been guiding migrants onto trains to the city. Governor Murphy was asked why they were being directed to New York City. New York City is where the federal resources are located and directed for these migrants and that is a fact. And he said, we’re not going to have that in our city.

We’re not having that in our city. Listen, y’all can do that over in New York, Jersey. We know we all little sister, but we’re not having that over in Jersey. So listen, if you all want to continue to fight the good fight, then what we going to do is we going to put them on the bus to head over to you and that’s how we going to solve for it.

Ongoing migrant Cris here in Chicago, NBC five investigates has learned the city signed a massive spending increase with that controversial company to continue staffing the city’s migrant shelters. Our investigative reporter Bennett Aberley is here with more on the story that you actually broke online earlier today. Bennett. Yeah, Stefan and Allison. Mayor Branda Johnson signed a $30 million contract in Garice on that last business day of 2023 with favorite healthcare staffing.

So at the end of the day, and I remember, and as you continue to do these stories over and over and you start to get into the details, you start to become an expert because you’ve put in so much time to researching and reacting to and seeing what’s happening over in Chicago and looking at documentation and talking to Alderman and having him interview up on our platform all 2023.

And Brandon Johnson used the very last business day of 2023 to not only sign an extension for staffing, but to give an increase in dollars. Now, one detail that we also missed out on is, I don’t know if you all remember, but one of the things that they advocated for was to be staffed by companies in Chicago. So they were going to look for diversity, equity and inclusion companies that kept the money inside of Chicago and all of this stuff.

But in reality, they gave a raise and they signed a $30 million extension with this faceless company that nobody knows who’s the head of or where the money is coming from or what the staffing is coming from. They signed an increase in funding, more than they were spending before in order to continue to sign on to have all of these people supported in the crisis. Now, remember, that’s just the staffing companies.

That has nothing to do. Zero to do with healthcare coverage. Schools, transportation, housing. That’s just staffing. That’s it. It’s only staffing. And this is in Chicago. Amendment follows months of criticism over millions of dollars that have flowed to one company. City records show this $30 million spending increase for favorite healthcare staffing was signed. Spending increase $30 million spending increase. Listen, look at the documentation, y’all. This is not the initial amount that they’re paying.

This is the amount more that they’re going to be paying on top of what they were paying before. The contract is hereby increased by $30,252,882. This is the documentation signed on the last business day of the year, as though we wasn’t going to catch it and we wasn’t going to bring it to the attention of the people. I want y’all to know what’s happening in your city. Anton, why do you keep bringing Chicago to the front of the congregation? Why are you not aware of what’s happening in your own city? So that you can make sure that you vote appropriately or hold your leaders accountable.

Increase by a total of 30 m. 30 m. Come on. This is not play play money. This is not monopoly money. This is your tax dollars. Instead of getting mad at me for bringing it to the light, you should get mad at the people that’s giving away your money and then increasing all of the fees and the tax liabilities that you have to go through in order to continue to live in this city, in this hellhole where eleven year olds is getting hit by stray bullets and they were reducing the police force and increasing your property taxes.

That’s what you should be mad at. And by Mayor Brandon Johnson. On December 29, two months after the city renewed favorites contract to staff the city’s migrant shelters, the new spending limit now tops $70 million. And here’s the other part about it. Instead of. Listen, it’s a very simple solution. Give more money over into the border instead of more money coming out of your pocket in order to staff this thing.

More money over to the border and border patrol agents and build better walls and infrastructure and technology. Instead of funding that, they have this endless cycle of going into debt, operating at a deficit and continuing to raise the budget for what they staff in these companies for $70 million from $40 to $70,000,000. 70 not $70, not 70,000, 70 million. What could this money have been used for? For years they’ve shut down all of your rec centers and your schools, got trash, books and the meals is trash and homelessness been running rampant.

But somehow, some way they find the money. Even if they got to go into debt and raise your property taxes to do it, they find money to fund things that’s not even in your best interest. How? Who, what, when, where, why and how? How is this a thing? Favorite’s role in Chicago’s migrant crisis has not been without controversy. The Kansas based company has previously come under criticism from city alderman for what they called exorbitant hourly pay rates, which the Johnson administration has repeatedly said it has worked to lower.

As NBC five investigates previously reported, past invoices show, favorite routinely build the city at 84 hours per week for most of its staff, including overtime. Meaning if the company were to continue to bill at that pace, it could cost taxpayers between $220 to $859,000 per year per employee. It’s going to cost you between 220,850 and $859,000 per employee per year with no end in sight. This company, these people and this staffing are getting rich off of Chicagoans.

They’re getting rich off of you. So when you go to work every day and you look at your paycheck, know that it’s taking a whole lot of y’all just to pay for one of them, to staff people to come over here and take your jobs, live off your resources and to make sure you educate their children per employee per year. And they got a raise. And they got a raise even at those newly reduced rates, the city’s online portal shows.

Since last December, favorite has been paid nearly $94 million. The timing of this contract increase comes two weeks after five year old John Carlo Martinez Rivera died after having a medical emergency in a city run shelter that favorite operates. This woman, who asked not to be identified, said she was got the new j zone. Hold on. This woman who asked not to be. You got the Carolina Blue and Black J zone.

You ain’t even got on black Air Force ones. You got the new jays on. Where’s she getting new jordans? And those is authentic. Where’s she getting new jordans from identified said she was saddened by the boy’s death because her children had played with the boy inside, having crossed the Rio Grande with her husband and children. She told me she was grateful for the shelter and doesn’t have complaints.

But ten other migrants who spoke to us off camera due to a fear of reprisal said the food and health care provided inside are inadequate and they complained about the food and health care that they giving y’all shelter. In Pilsen. We watched as migrant families purchase food from vendors and others walked nearly a mile to this grocery store in Bridgeport in search of other food, and we reached out to the mayor’s office and a favorite to comment on the contract amendment.

We have not heard back from the city. A spokeswoman for favorite referred our questions back to the mayor’s office. The cause of the boy’s death remains under investigation, although there were reports from migrants and volunteers that that child had a fever prior to being fine. I wonder if a lawsuit going to come out of this. .