Javier* spent Christmas Day crying. His entire family, including his wife and his daughter, are in Colombia. He’s been in New York for a month. He came alone and lives in one of the shelters that the city has made available to migrants who have just arrived. He admits that these days tears come to his eyes when he thinks about his daughter. “You feel alone, but you have to keep moving forward,” says this Colombian.
This young man, according to what he says, arrived in Manhattan on one of the buses that the Texas Government is chartering for free to take migrants out of his state. After more than a day and a half of travel, he says that they were received by police officers and taken to a shelter near the unloading point.
This Wednesday, María* (22 years old), Guillermo* (29 years old) and their three-year-old son also arrived in New York in one of those same vehicles, according to what they say. Coming from Venezuela, where they left four months ago due to the country’s economic situation, they have chosen the Empire State city as their first destination in the United States to “get to know it” and look for work “opportunities.”
For now, they are staying in one of the centers that houses the new arrivals, the Roosevelt Hotel. This former hospitality space, converted into a shelter for migrants, is located a few meters from very touristy areas that are very frequented these days, Grand Central Station and Times Square.
With the change of users, going from being a tourist accommodation to a care center for newcomers, the exterior of the hotel has been evolving. The doormen, suitcase carts and taxis at the door have been replaced by security agents, a row of parked delivery motorcycles and women with carts selling gelatin or coffee. Its current tenants wear identification on their heads to be able to pass through the door control.
14 buses from Texas in a single night
In order to control the entry of buses sent by Greg Abbott’s government, the Democratic mayor of New York, Eric Adams, announced an executive order on Wednesday. This measure establishes that vehicle companies that transport migrants from one state to another will only be able to drop them off in the city from Monday to Friday, between 8:30 am and noon. Furthermore, unless otherwise agreed, there will only be a single delivery point, located a few meters from Times Square.
The mayor made this decision after they arrived in the city last week 14 buses sent from Texas in a single night. This figure is the highest recorded in a single day since last spring, as explained by the City Council in a statement, where it also noted that this measure “will help ensure that the city can continue to manage this humanitarian crisis in an orderly manner.”
“The buses left [a los migrantes] in the dark, in the middle of nowhere and without any assistance they received,” Joshua Goldfein, Legal Aid Society lawyer, explains to Univision Noticias. With this measure, Adams’ team intends that from now on “there will be adequate personnel to receive them because some arrive with medical problems, they do not have appropriate clothing or shoes,” adds the lawyer.
Families leave the Row Hotel, which functions as a municipal shelter
Credit: Andres Kudacki/AP
“Texas has been trying to wreak havoc on our shelter system by sending bus after bus without telling us when they will arrive or how many people are on them, often leaving passengers on city streets in the middle of the night,” lamented Lisa Zornberg, legal advisor to the City Council.
With the approval of this executive order, which has already come into force, Adams’ team wants to achieve “more effective” management – in the words of Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom – in the reception of newly arrived migrants, knowing previously what their destination will be as soon as they step into the city and what the profile of the travelers is, whether they are children, young people or adults.
Businesses that fail to comply with these requirements face charges of class B misdemeanors, which could result in jail terms of up to three months and fines of up to $500 for individuals and $2,000 for corporations.
Adams made this announcement alongside the Democratic mayors of the cities of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, and Denver, Mike Johnston. The three local leaders insisted on their requests for more federal aid and coordination with the Texas government, given the arrival of asylum seekers. New York received 14,700 new migrants this last month, according to the most recent figures published by the City Council.
76% of migrants are families with children
The mayor has repeatedly insisted that the demand for social assistance “will destroy New York” because “the expense of receiving and sheltering them will significantly impact other” public programs. The city has served 161,000 migrants, according to the latest figures provided by the mayor, which reflect the situation of the admissions system since spring 2022.
Of all of them, 68,000 are currently under the guardianship of the city. The majority (76%) are families with children, as reflected in the data published by the New York City Council. Muzaffar Chishti, director of the New York office of the Migration Policy Institute, explains that this phenomenon is national. “We have seen an increase in the number of families” that have crossed the border, he explains to Univision Noticias.
Two people at the entrance to the Roosevelt Hotel
Credit: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP
According to Chishti, the border control measures modified by the Biden administration in January to “incentivize” access to the United States legally have not prevented irregular arrivals with children. “They don’t detain families at the border. That encouraged people to come like that,” she points out.
Throughout the fiscal year that ended in June 2023, the city spent $1.4 billion on guaranteeing housing and other services provided to asylum seekers, such as food or medical assistance. The State will reimburse the city 438 million dollars. Looking ahead to fiscal year 2024, the team has budgeted spending $2.9 billion, as reported by the state controller, Brad Lander. In total, according to municipal estimates, until 2025 the city will spend $12,000 million to manage the arrival of new migrants.
To alleviate, on the one hand, the budget, and on the other hand, the pressure on the city’s accommodation capacity, Adams announced in October that the stay in shelters for migrant families with children will be limited to 60 days. Weeks before, he already warned that adults who did not have minors in their care could only stay for 30 days in municipal facilities.
These measures are not definitive. Those affected can begin a new process to look for other accommodation, if they have not found a place to live. An action that Goldfein considers to be totally unnecessary because it forces migrants to “pack all their belongings”, “take a day off from work” and take their children out of school that same day to start the procedure again.
“Taking them out of school again is a trauma”
If they want to access an extension, migrants will have to meet with an official and explain “what their plan is,” adds the Legal Aid Society lawyer, or if they have in mind “going somewhere else.” He maintains that “it would be much better” if these meetings were not held after an eviction date and a move, but rather by agreeing before their departure on a day to meet at their accommodation and work with them “on a plan to move forward.”
“My children suffer from total instability,” laments Gabriela*, a Peruvian, who has been in the city for three months and has already received notification to leave her shelter. Her eviction date is next January 31, according to her story. Her family is one of 3,500 who have already been issued this notification, according to figures published by The New York Timeswhich also reports that these communications will begin to be implemented in January.
Migrants take the school bus in front of Row Hotel, one of the shelters that the city has set up
Credit: Andres Kudacki/AP
Goldfein confirms that “people are very scared” by this measure, especially by the idea of being homeless in winter, as well as the impact it can have on their children’s education, he adds. Gabriela’s children, 14 and 16 years old, respectively, “have just entered a school in Manhattan.”
With an eviction date on the horizon, which could lead to a change of neighborhood, this woman sees no sense in the City Council’s management. “They have just entered. They are adapting and, now, taking them out again is a trauma. Again papers, again school, again you have to move and it takes 10 or 15 days to adapt and start studying,” she says. And she adds: “It is a trauma for every family.” Faced with this regret, she asks the Adams team for reflection: “They should think better and give us a year of stability because if they don’t, our children are going to be lost.”
The key to this controversy centers on the legal agreement that requires New York City to provide emergency housing to homeless people. A pioneering measure, against which Adams has spoken out, and which does not exist in any of the other large cities in the country.
Christi considers that this is one of the factors that will contribute to “most” of the migrants who have arrived in the city staying there. The other circumstances that influence his prognosis are the “better possibilities of finding work than in other places” and the public transportation system, “very extensive” and which allows moving from “one part of the city to another” without a car.
*Names changed at the request of those interviewed to protect their identity.
2023-12-30 14:23:00
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