“I can’t ask for more, everything is very good service”: migrant

Angelín Delgado arrived in NY on Thursday night with her husband and two children, ages 10 and 3.

They left Venezuela on October 1, 2022, after a months-long journey through several countries, facing dangers and sleeping outdoors.

They entered from Texas and now they are happy because they slept in a hotel located in Long Island City, which has become a refuge and a new reception center for immigrants with children.

“And we went through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and at the border in Matamoros we were for two months, we lasted five months on the journey,” Delgado said.

Mayor Eric Adams announced the opening of this new reception center with 144 rooms for new arrivals, which is now the seventh center where immigrants can receive help with different asylum procedures and how to access the various services that the city grants them.

-How are they treating you?

“Wonderful. I can’t ask for more, everything is very good service. Spectacular room, everything very clean, they have helped us with everything, the food is very good,” said Delgado.

According to data from the mayor’s office, 45,600 immigrants seeking asylum have arrived in New York City so far. These have been placed in 85 hotels and various shelters, where they have provided food, vaccinations for children, admission to schools and treatment with dignity, according to reports.

Another interviewed father said that he arrived from Peru a month ago with his wife and two small children.

“Having a foster home here is a miracle. The important thing is that we have a roof and food for the children that they give us. Firstly, grateful to God and secondly, grateful to the City and the country that give us this support, and this asylum that we Yes, we need it,” said the immigrant.

The Ecuadorian Ana Lucia Guamán arrived in NY on January 14. Her experience through the jungle or Darién plug, together with her husband and two young daughters was traumatic, she recounted.

Guamán.

“The jungle is very ugly, I almost lost my daughters, I almost lost my life too. The jungle is horrible, it’s very ugly, no, I don’t wish anyone to come that way,” said Guamán.

Despite recent criticisms of dining at hotel-turned-shelters, the immigrants we spoke to at Long Island City hotels and at this new hub all agree that the treatment and everything is very good.