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HERE

Venezuelans Living in Asylum Limbo in Park West Hotel Share Their Stories

October 28, 2022 | 3:00 PM - Updated on October 30, 2022 | 5:49 AM
in NEWS, POLITICS
25
Suember Yamarte in front of Park West Hotel. Photographs by Alex Maroño Porto.

By Alex Maroño Porto

José Arturo, 44, was a supervisor at a chicken slaughterhouse in Venezuela until hyperinflation and political chaos sent his country into a tailspin, pushing Arturo and millions of others to migrate in order to survive. “You can’t live right now in Venezuela,” Arturo said during an interview at the Park West Hotel, a former pandemic-era women’s homeless shelter on Central Park West at 106th Street, where he has been living for almost two months. 

Arturo says the exodus from his homeland began with a journey of more than 2,500 miles, much of it made on foot, from the Venezuelan city of Maracay to Juarez, Mexico, where he crossed the Rio Grande into Texas. “It was horrible,” he recalled. “We came all the way through the jungle, and it took us 69 days to arrive here.” 

As soon as Arturo set foot in Texas, he says, U.S. immigration officials arrested him and held him for four days in a detention center. Then, without much explanation (“They were saying there would be work in New York,” he said), he was put on a bus with other Venezuelan asylum seekers and given a snack and some food. Two days later, the group pulled into New York’s Port Authority bus station.

José Arturo holding some food he received at the Park West Hotel.

Buses like the one that brought Arturo to New York have been arriving regularly since April, when Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would send migrants detained there to Washington, D.C. and New York City as part of a political effort to demand more border security by the federal government. The 17,000 migrants who have arrived here since spring prompted Mayor Eric Adams to declare a state of emergency this month as the city scrambles to shelter them. Despite the emergency declaration here, Abbott, a Republican, announced that the busing would continue in order “to relieve our overwhelmed border towns.” 

The asylum seekers bused to New York are just a small part of  the “largest [exodus] that Latin America has seen in modern times,” according to Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Millions of Venezuelans have fled their homeland’s authoritarian regime, where almost 77% of the population lives in extreme poverty. As the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants reported, the overwhelming majority of them are scattered in Colombia and Peru, while more than 153,000 crossed the border to the U.S. between October 2021 and  August 2022, according to data from Customs and Border Protection. 

To grapple with the influx here, the city is adopting temporary measures such as building a massive tent center on Randall’s Island, a project deemed “unacceptable” by Make the Road New York, an immigration-rights organization. Despite the challenging housing situation, several of the migrants at the Upper West Side’s Park West Hotel said they were grateful to be in New York.

“There is no shelter in Texas, there is no help like there is here,” Arturo told the Rag. He was assigned to the Park West by the city’s Department of Homeless Services. The hotel’s 94 rooms are almost all occupied by migrants from Latin American countries, including Venezuela and Nicaragua, according to the current residents. Some were bussed here from Texas, under Gov. Abbott’s policy, while others made their way here on their own or with aid from shelters or faith-based organizations in Texas. Regardless of how they made the journey here, the Venezuelans said they came to New York because they were told there were jobs here; less clear to them were the administrative hurdles that prevent asylum seekers from working legally for at least several months after they enter the U.S.

Processing the asylum claims of the Venezuelans will be done by courts in New York, but the legal proceedings could take years, according to Hasan Shafiqullah, the attorney in charge of the Legal Aid Society’s immigration law unit. “Most judges are backlogged for about three years,” he said in a phone interview.

And even when their cases reach the hearing stage, the asylum seekers face difficult odds in winning the approval they need in order to stay in the United States. According to one study of over 200,000 asylum claims made between 2016 and 2021, 60% of immigration judges have an asylum denial rate of 70% or higher, while more than 20% have an asylum denial rate of over 90%. During the process asylum seekers can’t visit their home country, but they are allowed to work here after they receive a Social Security number and a work permit – a process that takes at least 180 days from the time an asylum claim is first made, according to Shafiquilah. 

As they wait, some of the Venezuelans acknowledge they feel lonely and isolated. Estefani Mijares, 22, left the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on August 1 with her husband and three-year-old son. They paid a coyote (smuggler) to help them on a perilous eight-day journey through Panama, a route that has claimed dozens of migrant lives. Along the way, they lost their food and were separated for a time from their coyote guide. 

“I was listening to my child cry and, in my mind, I only thought that at some point I was going to die here with my son,” said Mijares. Eventually the family arrived in Texas and spent a few days in a shelter, which bought plane tickets for the family to fly to New Jersey. Once there, a friend told Mijares the family was more likely to find shelter in New York; they came to the city and eventually found housing at Park West.

Because she can’t speak English, Mijares barely leaves the hotel room and spends many hours feeling isolated. “I would like to understand the language to socialize more. I am embarrassed to leave my room, to go into a shopping mall,” she said. “It’s a depression that those of us who are here without a family suffer.” But, “at least we have a roof, and it’s comfortable and beautiful,” she said. 

Estefani Mijares and her family didn’t eat for four days while crossing the jungle that separates Colombia and Panamá.

At the Park West, built as a transitional residence for tourists, the hotel rooms only have a microwave oven, so the migrants can’t cook their own meals. The residents say the hotel serves them cold meals, but some neighbors regularly bring them hot food.

“The neighbors have received me very well,” said Johan, 38, who did not want to give his last name. “They have helped us with food and clothing.” 

Johan said he, his wife and two children had wanted to stay in Texas, after their “dangerous” trek there from Venezuela. But, “I was told there was no shelter in Texas.” So, like Arturo, Johan and his family spent two days on a bus, with a few sandwiches to sustain them, before finally landing at the Park West. 

Around 4 p.m. on a late October Sunday, Sofía Olivar and a few friends and relatives arrived at the benches in front of the Park West, bearing bags of hot, homemade meals – meat, beans, rice and pasta. Olivar immigrated to Harlem from the Dominican Republic 35 years ago. She heard about the Park West Venezuelans through her church, Nuestra Señora de Lourdes, and she sees her Sunday visits to the Park West as giving back. 

“We started collecting clothes, we met them and then we started coming.” Olivar said. Food for the meals comes from family contributions. “We do this from the heart,” she said as a few migrants gathered for the meals. “The only point is to help.”

Some of the food María Olivares and her friends brought to the Park West Hotel migrants.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced a policy shift designed to stop Venezuelans from crossing the southern U.S. border illegally. Those who do so are now turned back to Mexico; according to the Department of Homeland Security, anyone seeking to flee Venezuela’s “economic and humanitarian crisis” must apply for entry to the U.S. from Caracas. They must show proof that someone in the U.S. is willing to give them economic support, and no more than 24,000 Venezuelans will be granted U.S. entry under the policy. 

The policy does not apply to Veneuzuelans like Suember Yamarte, 41, from Maracay, who is already here and living at the Park West with his 18-year-old son. The pair arrived here after a two-month trek this summer from Venezuela to Texas, followed by a bus trip to New York. But now, even if Yamarte and his son are granted asylum to remain in the U.S., reuniting with the rest of the family – Yamarte’s wife and three more children – could be blocked by the Biden policy’s new rules on Venezuelan migration. 

“My intention was to bring my children here so they could have a better life,” said Yamarte, who worked as a watchmaker in Venezuela. If he receives asylum but the rest of the family is unable to join him, “I will make money and set up a business in Venezuela,” Yamarte said. “Family is family. You can’t lose your family just to be here.” 

Suember Yamarte would like to bring his family from Venezuela to New York City.

Antony Castrillón, 24, another Park West Hotel resident who arrived with his wife and five-year-old son two months ago, said deportation is the main fear for Venezuelan immigrants right now. “We don’t know what could happen to us,” said Castrillón. “Maybe they could even take us out of the country.” 

Castrillón, who used to work as a lathe operator, spent a month and a half with his family trying to reach the United States. They were detained in Texas for six days, after which a faith-based group helped them get plane tickets to New York. But like Arturo and others at the Park West Hotel, Castrillón is still waiting for a work permit and trying to make ends meet. “I don’t have papers at the moment, and it’s difficult to find a job,” he said. 

Antony Castrillón fears that he and his family could eventually be kicked out of the country.

 Castrillón’s son is enrolled in school while he waits for work permission. He says he misses his culture, his people and even the tropical Venezuelan weather. But New York City, “the capital of the world,” he says, is slowly becoming his home. 

“I know that I’ll have a better quality of life here,” Castrillón said. “By working hard, I will achieve what I have always longed for.” 

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good humor
good humor
5 months ago

Fantastic story. I hope these stories get out more so that more of them come here!

2
Reply
UWS-Sara
UWS-Sara
5 months ago
Reply to  good humor

the dangers of coming the america illegal to not outweigh the benefits for many. trafficking, death, assault, starvation, thirst and the risks only get worse for females and children. The legal system needs a lot of reform but we shouldn’t encourage anyone to travel this distance without a safe way to get here. The humanitarian horrors are endless.

8
Reply
Kevin
Kevin
5 months ago
Reply to  UWS-Sara

That people would suffer these conditions of escape and all the potential risks of capture tells me they don’t need (or get) a whole lot of “encouragement to travel this distance.” They are desperate people who need our help. Stop blaming the victims.

3
Reply
Karin Socci
Karin Socci
5 months ago

What a well researched story! Humanizing our new neighbors will certainly help soften hardened hearts.
It’s outrageous that they cannot start working legally for at least 6 months when we can use all the hard working people we can get here in the US.
Thank you for this great reporting.

8
Reply
Paul
Paul
5 months ago

In the early 60s hundreds of thousands of Cubans came here in prima facie violation of the strict immigration laws then in effect and which weren’t repealed until 1965. Because they were fleeing a socialist hell hole they were greeted, laws notwithstanding, then bent, then changed for them. That many were functionaries of the corrupt Batista regime, and the mobsters who profited off it, well that was totally overlooked.
Today’s Venezuelans are if anything more sympathetic than the pro-authoritarian Batista sympathizers who came here then. They are skilled and they want to put their skills to use. Many are small businesspeople, others have trades. They are fleeing a socialist hell hole.
Why the different treatment from America’s conservatives?
We have 10 million open job positions. They have skills.
Do. The. Math.

7
Reply
B.B.
B.B.
4 months ago
Reply to  Paul

You don’t think there are thousands, hundreds of thousand or millions in Europe and elsewhere who are “skilled” or whatever and would love to immigrate to USA?

Immigrating to USA legally is a long, complicated and expensive process, so many simply choose to remain at home. This rather than storm a country’s borders and claim squatters rights.

10
Reply
Paul
Paul
4 months ago
Reply to  B.B.

You sound like trump saying why don’t Norwegians come here?
The reason you’re throwing that out, as trump did, is obvious.

Well the answer to both of you is the same. On average, they are living as well as or better than we do, with longer life spans, better pensions in their old age, and better access to health care. Compare lifespan in the US with other first world countries, but before you do, you may need a stiff drink.

As far as skills are concerned, when it comes to the jobs immigrants most often filled, which are health care entry jobs (i.e. caretaking for the aged and disabled), landscaping, farm work, construction, maintenance, etc? The skill sets of our current immigrants are well fitted to them, and the number of openings is enormous.

2
Reply
B.B.
B.B.
4 months ago
Reply to  Paul

Those so called “job openings” exist largely as result of Kennedy immigration reforms of 1965.

https://www.history.com/news/immigration-act-1965-changes

Hart-Celler Act among many other things prioritized family unification as immigration policy. This over needs of various employment sectors.

5
Reply
Paul
Paul
4 months ago
Reply to  B.B.

Here’s the exact quote from your cite: “The act also established new immigration policies that looked at reuniting families and giving priority to skilled laborers and professionals.”
How in the world did you get from this clear statement to your claim that the law ‘prioritized family unification … over the needs of various employment sectors?”

1
Reply
Jules
Jules
5 months ago
Reply to  Paul

“We have 10 million open job positions” .. Perhaps that’s why they have been allowed into the country! .. So why not greet them, house them and thank them for being here! Yeah!!! And stop attempting to put them in flooded areas, under tents..etc. Get organized NY! Thank them. Be grateful they’re here~!!

3
Reply
Lenore
Lenore
5 months ago
Reply to  Paul

You do realize the person who overthrew Batista was far, far more authoritarian, right?

11
Reply
Paul
Paul
5 months ago
Reply to  Lenore

And those fleeing the current Venezuelan regime are no less sympathetic.

0
Reply
Penelope Pi-Sunyer
Penelope Pi-Sunyer
5 months ago

Please look up and post an amazing organization that is meeting asylum seekers at the Port Authority bus station and at other sites and offering them many services. The organization is TEAM TLC NYC with a full web site.

3
Reply
Ronald McKeen
Ronald McKeen
5 months ago

Still – they are not legal.
Try to do as they did into any country in the world.
You’ll end up in jail, or deported, pronto.

16
Reply
UWS-er
UWS-er
4 months ago
Reply to  Ronald McKeen

Asylum seekers ARE here legally. You may disagree with the laws, but it doesn’t change the reality.

9
Reply
Keith
Keith
4 months ago
Reply to  Ronald McKeen

Asylum seekers most definitely are “legal.” Some, perhaps many, may eventually be denied asylum protection, but they are allowed to be here while their applications are processed.

8
Reply
Bill Th
Bill Th
4 months ago
Reply to  Ronald McKeen

Actually they are legal – under US law they have a right to be here seeking asylum, at least until their cases are decided.

6
Reply
m.pipik
m.pipik
4 months ago
Reply to  Ronald McKeen

You mean we should do to them what America did in 1939 to the Jews on the ship “MS. St. Louis.”

2
Reply
Old Westsider
Old Westsider
4 months ago
Reply to  m.pipik

No, it wasn’t the U.S. It was Cuba that didn’t allow the St. Louis to dock. A few were permitted to go ashore, but the rest returned to Belgium.

0
Reply
B.B.
B.B.
4 months ago
Reply to  Old Westsider

After leaving Cuba MS St. Louis headed for USA (Florida). Roosevelt administration rebuffed any and all efforts to allow the ship to dock (or even enter US territory waters). Captain of ship contemplated running his ship aground to allow passengers to escape on USA soil, but that didn’t happen either. Largely likely due to US Navy and Coast Guard dogging MS St. Louis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis#The_“Voyage_of_the_Damned”

6
Reply
Greg A -- UWS
Greg A -- UWS
4 months ago

This article about immigrants is of a quality that the UWR should strive for. Bien hecho señor

4
Reply
Jacey
Jacey
4 months ago

Really helpful to these people would be English lessons. Volunteers could be instructed how to do this positively for monolingual non-English speakers. These refugees have time available & motivation. Men, women, children would all be fit.

8
Reply
DRS
DRS
4 months ago

Cut the bureaucracy and allow these folks to work – Restaurants, Eating Houses, Cookshops, Nursing Homes, Supermarkets,Retail and Entertainment ,Auto Detailing, Repairs &Maintenance,Farming/Packaging/Processing are all indicating that there is a severe shortage of labor for the upcoming season!Why are we questioning how God has provided this need for us?

3
Reply
B.B.
B.B.
4 months ago

I’m sorry, but haven’t heard one single story from these “migrants” that speaks to any sort of well grounded fear of prosecution, that is what asylum claims are supposed to be about.

Instead over and over again all one hears basically is “things are bad economically and or socially where I was, so decided to move to USA”. That is immigration which is supposed to be an orderly and legal process.

11
Reply
Paul
Paul
4 months ago
Reply to  B.B.

The word is “persecution” not “prosecution” and there’s an enormous difference.
Many of us descend from people who fled the Pale of Settlement on account of persecution.
Dishonest brokers (I recall for one a high profile right winger named Reed Irvine, who founded a group comically named “Accuracy in Media”) twisted this to say stuff like ‘hardly any Jews were killed by the Czars’ which, technically, is true. They were killed and PERSECUTED by Cossacks, who were not members of the Russian government, just people who acted knowing the government would do nothing to stop them. Just like the lynch mobs in the American South between 1865 and 1964.
Others of us fled large parts of Italy because government was ineffective and groups of criminals organized to keep them in terror and in virtual serfdom.

It’s America’s conservatives who tell us that the socialist government of Venezuela is bent on ostracizing and impoverishing its middle class making life impossible for them. It follows from that that these people should be welcome here.

1
Reply

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