New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration considered setting aside $5 million in federal Covid-19 aid for a “rapid response plan” for migrants coming into the state from the southern border last summer but the plan never came to fruition, according to records and his office.

That proposal, mentioned in a June application to use relief funds and obtained by POLITICO through a public records request, was in anticipation of “an influx” of migrants with the lifting of so-called Title 42 restrictions a month earlier. New Jersey is seeing migrants bused to the state en route to New York City, although it is unclear what level of state involvement there will be. The Democratic governor said Wednesday the arrivals by bus from Texas the past week is “a manageable situation” and stressed that most migrants were not staying in the state.

The records offer a glimpse how the Murphy administration could address migrants entering the state should the situation escalate. The Title 42 policy, which was started by the Trump administration and carried through the Biden administration until May 2023, allowed for asylum-seekers to be turned away at the southern border on public health grounds. That happened an estimated 2 million times while the policy was in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As a result of the federal [public health emergency] ending, Title 42 has also been rescinded,” the application, signed by the state Department of Human Services' acting chief financial officer at the time, said. “Border arrivals are expected........

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