A Bay Area-based company is responding after images of buses with its logo were seen offloading migrants in New York City.
Some buses with Marin Airporter's logos were seen in videos, including a news report that aired during NBC Nightly News Saturday. The images are gaining negative attention online.
David Hughes, vice president of the Marin-based shuttle service said Sunday that the company is not part of the migrant transfer operation. The company added that the buses seen in the videos were sold months ago.
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"They should have painted them and put their own logos on it. They did not,” said Hughes. “And now we're on the national news. We've got absolutely nothing to do with transporting migrants or bringing anybody from Texas to New York."
In a statement, the Marin Airporter said the company "would never be a part of this" and added that "the buses were supposed to be repainted by the new owners but they have failed to do so."
"We will send cease and desist orders and we may have to threaten legal action to get them to take our name off the bus,” said Hughes. “They're infringing our good name and trademark, so we're looking into what actions we will take."
Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and Florida have been busing and flying migrants without notice to so-called "sanctuary cities."
New York is eyeing legal action to stop Texas Governor Greg Abbott from sending more buses full of migrants to the city.
Regular customers of the Marin shuttle service were surprised a local company is tangled up in this national controversy.
"I think it's unconscionable that they wouldn't strip the bus of the logos,” said San Rafael resident, Sharron Oda. “Because right now there's all this uproar about shipping migrants all over the U.S."
Hughes said he's holding off on naming the company they sold the buses to. He wants to hear back from them about taking their logos off those older buses before doing anything else.
