The NYPD pounced on buses bringing border-crossers to the Big Apple from Texas on Friday — part of a desperate effort to slow the overwhelming flow of thousands of migrants, according to sources.
The Post saw a team of NYPD Highway Patrol officers waiting in four squad cars near the Port Authority pulling over four buses that had just dropped off dozens of migrants starting at around 6:15 a.m.
The officers then spent around an hour meticulously searching each bus for any possible infractions, including log books, tire threads, fluid levels and even windshield wiper placement.
Some of the drivers were given court appearance tickets and allowed to drive off.
However, sources told The Post that the hope was to find excuses to take the buses off the road to complicate the mass ferrying of migrants from Republican Texas border cities.
“Nothing is too minor to take them out of service,” one law-enforcement source told The Post of Friday’s operation.
But some of the stopped drivers insisted that the crackdown would not scare off the companies sending them.
“I don’t care if the NYPD inspects us, we’ll keep making this trip because the money’s too good,” one of the drivers, who only gave the name Misael, said after getting four pink court-appearance tickets, including one for a loose seatbelt.
“I’m with [Texas Gov.] Greg Abbott all the way. I don’t want migrants in my state. If [President] Biden wants the borders open, the Democrat states can take them,” insisted the Dallas-based driver.
“What would you do if someone came into your house because your neighbor keeps saying, ‘Welcome, welcome’?
“In Texas, we say stack ’em, pack ’em and ship ’em to New York.”
The first vehicle that was stopped, a La Sultana Autobuses from Mexico, had just left the Port Authority after dropping off 30 migrants picked up from El Paso — the city responsible for the most shipments, with at least 7,330 migrants sent to New York City since August 23.
The officers checked the driver’s log book as well as the bus’ headlights, indicators, hazard lights, wiper fluid, tire tread, brakes and tools.
After about an hour, they issued the drivers two pink tickets. The cops would not say what they were for, but one appeared to be over a loose windshield wiper.
Driver Robert Reis, 38, told The Post it was “the second time I have done this trip from Texas to New York.”
“The people on the bus were migrants from Venezuela and Ecuador” whom he picked up “at a government building” in El Paso, he said.
“The trip was 40, maybe 42 hours,” he said, saying he and another driver took 8-hour shifts.
“I dropped off four passengers in Dallas, four more in Nashville and then 30 passengers got off in New York.
“There were families on my bus. They said the United States was their dream. They took pictures when we stopped for gas,” he said.
At a similar time, an Ejecutivo Travel bus with Texas plates was also stopped for a similar expectation, with the officers also checking its stock of dried food and masks. It finally drove off with a ticket.
The police squad remained at the checkpoint on West 41 Street and Dyer Avenue, pulling over a third bus just after 8 a.m.
“This is my first trip driving migrants from Texas to New York,” said the driver, who had come from Dallas with migrants originally from Honduras and Cuba.
The NYPD did not immediately comment on the stops.
The operation came ahead of a scheduled announcement by Mayor Adams Friday about what his office has called an “unprecedented crisis” of an estimated 17,400 migrants flooding into the city.
Texas Gov. Abbott and his counterparts in Arizona and Florida have blamed the unprecedented influx on President Biden’s border policies, saying they’ve been driven to relocate thousands of migrants to Democratic sanctuary cities.
However, Adams has pointedly refused to blame Biden for the crisis engulfing the city, which has strained the homeless shelter system and forced officials to turn 42 hotels into emergency shelters.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods