Eric Adams announced on Thursday that the city had filed a lawsuit against a group of bus companies, seeking $708m for transporting migrants to New York City from Texas.

The mayor’s lawsuit accuses 17 bus companies of violating state law by transporting more than 33,000 people to the city as part of a campaign by Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to expel people who cross the US-Mexico border without authorization.

The city says it is seeking the $708m because that is the cost it has incurred to provide shelter and services to people over the last two years, in the lawsuit filed in New York state court in Manhattan.

The lawsuit accuses charter bus operators that contracted with Texas of violating a 19th-century New York law that requires anyone who transports “a needy person” likely to seek government assistance from another state to cover their expenses.

Reuters contributed to this report