Four buses entered Manhattan on the morning of August 17 and exited a busy avenue onto a side street in the center of the district. The names printed on the buses – VLP Charter, Coastal Crew Change – gave no clue as to their mission. The only thing that gave them away were the Texas license plates.
One by one the passengers got off in an unknown city. Some were tired but smiling; others just tired: men with backpacks, women with babies and blankets on their laps, and children clutching teddy bears. A man had no shoes, only socks.
The city’s immigration affairs commissioner, Manuel Castro, greeted each with a handshake. A man in a green shirt greeted the children with a “play here”. There were tables laden with snacks, hand sanitizer, clothes and colorful bags of books. People with clipboards in hand offered papers to be distributed to gain a new identity: in addition to being illegal immigrants in the country and asylum seekers, the newcomers would join the ranks of homeless New Yorkers.
The influx of migrants arriving in New York, most of them fleeing crime and crippled economies in Central and South America, is testing New York’s reputation as a city that welcomes immigrants from all over the world. The flow shows no signs of abating, thanks in part to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, whose decision to send buses full of migrants to Washington and New York to stir up Democrats on the border policy issue has swelled the human river that normally it already flows towards the north.
For many years, New York has been fueled by the sweat and labor of immigrants. But your ability to help them settle in and settle down is being increasingly strained.
The arrival of 129 migrants at the Port Authority’s bus terminal on the 17th was the highest daily total seen so far in Governor Abbott’s campaign. But it represented only a part of the larger migration, which involves thousands of people. According to the City of New York, the city’s hostel system is already home to 4,900 asylum seekers.
They would be the main reason why the population of the main homeless shelter system grew by 13% in May to 51,000 people. There is much debate about the extent to which this increase can be attributed to migrants and to what extent to local factors such as the end of an eviction moratorium, as well as seasonal fluctuations. But whatever the reason, the situation is critical.
Family hostels make up more than half of the city’s hostel system, and at first the vacancy rate, which was supposed to be kept at 3%, dropped to less than 1%, according to the Legal Aid Society. ), which monitors conditions in the hostels. On August 18, according to the entity, the vacancy rate was 0.18%; that is, there were 19 rooms available throughout the system, which houses more than 10,000 families.
New York’s initial response to the influx of migrants was marred by weeks of hesitation and missteps, at odds with Mayor Eric Adams’ “welcome all” rhetoric. Some families slept in a reception office in the Bronx, breaking the law. Some were separated by bureaucratic errors. And advocates for migrants said the city had failed to provide basic aid such as food, diapers and medical aid.
Immigrant assistance groups said that two weeks ago, in an attempt to be photographed, Mayor Adams’ team slipped into a welcome effort set up by volunteers at the Port Authority, snatching food from the hands of volunteers so the mayor could be filmed. distributing them. “People on the mayor’s staff yelled at the refugees, telling them to smile at him,” said Ariadna Phillips, founder of South Bronx Mutual Aid.
Her account was corroborated by another volunteer who was photographed near the mayor. The mayor’s office denied that anything of the kind had taken place and described the volunteers’ report as a “false, outrageous and unfounded anecdote”.
Aid groups said that for much of the summer they intervened to help migrants who were confused and disoriented in the city.
“We know what shoe size they wear. We are aware of their medical needs. We know their processes, we know where they need to go to the immigration service,” said Sergio Tupac Uzurin, a volunteer with NYC ICE Watch. “The city government wasn’t doing any of that.”
But in recent days the city government has started to act in a more coordinated way. The reception centers that the city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs set up at the Port Authority to receive buses sent from Texas have been providing much-needed assistance to people arriving in New York with no idea where to go or what to do.
The city hall rented 1,300 rooms in 13 hotels to migrant families. As it predicts that the flow of migrants will continue, it has already launched an application for another 5,000.
While many migrants have become entangled in municipal bureaucracy, some who have made dangerous and grueling journeys to reach the United States are relieved by the relative ease of navigating the New York system.
“Imagine that we walked this far,” said Carolina Flores, 31, who fled Venezuela with her husband and four children and is now living with them in a hostel in Brooklyn. “Everything is very good. A hotel and house for free, this is something that would never happen in our country.”
By Labor Day, Sept. 5, the city plans to open a 600-room screening center and hostel for migrant families in the city center that should remain in operation “for the next six to 12 months,” according to the proposal.
Another period of six to 12 months, with a continuous flow as in the last month, can lead to the collapse of the already overloaded hostel system.
Since mid-July, the population of family hostels has grown by 8.5% — well above the 1% increase typically seen in the summer period, according to a New York Times analysis. If the trend continues for a year, the population of family hostels could almost double, from the current 31,000 people to almost 60,000.
It is unlikely that conditions at the border will bring any relief: 19,000 people were arrested in June crossing the border, 10% more than the number in June last year, which had been a record. And migration often increases in the cooler months.
The city’s desire to absorb these migrants, as it has absorbed previous waves, reflects the fundamental fact that New York has always relied on immigrants in every sector of its workforce, from restaurants and healthcare to the arts, technology and finance.
When New Yorkers leave the city, immigrants take their place. In many cases, immigrants do poorly paid work that other people reject. International migration to the city dropped sharply in the first year of the pandemic, leaving gaps in the job market that have only worsened as the city seeks to recover.
But new migrants, many of whom arrive penniless and without the social contacts to quickly establish themselves, are straining the system. The need to immediately find shelter for thousands of them — New York is one of the few American cities that is required by law to take in anyone who asks for shelter — clashes with opposition to building new shelters for the homeless.
Reactions from newcomers to the hostel system have not been enthusiastic. “I don’t feel good at the hostel because I’m gay,” said Pedro Gutierrez, 30, who arrived from Venezuela on Aug. 4 and was sent to a hostel on Wards Island. “Some people there say negative things about me and harass me.”
Dixon Arambulet, 30, also recently arrived from Venezuela and is living in the same hostel, where he says he has trouble sleeping.
“There are always people smoking, drinking and fighting,” said Arambulet, who was a barber in his country. He says he sleeps with his head over his backpack to prevent someone from stealing his documents.
What he needs most is a job, he says, so he can get out of the hostel. A week later, he still hadn’t found anything.
“I went out today and a kid told me he’s going to talk to a man about cleaning work – sweeping and picking up trash in a building,” he wrote in a text message. “He said he’ll let me know.”
