By Stephan Russo
Stephan Russo has been living on the Upper West Side since 1975 when he returned from serving in the Peace Corps in Colombia, South America. He was executive director of the nonprofit social services agency, Goddard Riverside, from 1998-2017, and is a contributor to West Side Rag.
We need to broaden our approach to the current migrant crisis.
I know this because I volunteer at the St. Paul & St. Andrew (SPSA) United Methodist Church on West 86th Street and West End Avenue, one of the many community organizations that has stepped up to help migrants, mostly from South and Central America, now living in our city.
When you enter the cavernous SPSA chapel on Monday mornings, you see dozens of volunteers distributing clothing, metro cards, personal daily use items, and food to over 200 migrants who come with their young children in tow — appreciative of the small things that make their daily lives more comfortable. Organizations have set up tables to provide legal and health information as well as ways for the recently arrived to adapt to their new lives in the city. The sense of community and support the church provides is palpable, and not to be underestimated.
The ending of the Title 42 health restrictions in place since the pandemic has led to thousands more asylum seekers waiting to enter the country. Our mayor scrambles to find enough shelter beds. The numbers are staggering — more than three million people have tried to cross the southwest border over the last 18 months, and there have been nearly 70,000 new arrivals in New York City in the past year, many bused here by beleagured Republican governors. We can expect even more in the days ahead. This issue is not going away.
A recent arrival told me what is undertaken to get here: the 1,000-mile trek from Venezuela. After being extorted and forced to pay bribes at the Venezuelan-Colombian border, he and the mother of his young daughter made it through the Darien jungle gap in Panama, where, without roads, there are mudslides, threats from armed smugglers, and many reported deaths. They crossed into the United States, were detained by border control agents for several days, then bused to the city. They left Venezuela, he told me, because it was impossible to buy even basic food and medical supplies there, such as milk and aspirin. The government is corrupt and has no interest in helping its people, he said.
One of my roles as a volunteer has been to review immigration documents and help those I speak to make sense of their immigration status. While I am not an attorney or an expert on immigration issues, I have learned a lot over the last several years as a volunteer Spanish interpreter helping to fill out asylum applications, changes of address forms, and other government documents.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
What has become so clear and disheartening to me is the insufficiency of legal assistance to help migrants manage their cases through our confusing and uncertain immigration system. Many have no idea how to apply for asylum, or, even if they do apply, will never qualify under existing law. Without legal help, they will remain, as they say, “in the shadows” — added to the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently believed to be in the country.
I see this is in the blank looks of the young Ecuadorian couple who doesn’t understand the difference between an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) “check-in,” and a date in immigration court; the Colombian woman who missed a court date because she is in New York City not Texas, and now has a deportation order; the Nicaraguan man who cannot find an attorney to help him with his asylum application and is nearing the one-year deadline to apply.
The local legal-services programs are overwhelmed, with long waiting lists. Many provide advice and some pro se (self-representation) help, but are without the resources to actually represent migrants in their cases. Private attorneys in this area charge thousands of dollars and often take advantage of these people, offering misinformation and false promises. Yet, if you speak to these asylum seekers about what is most concerning to them, the invariable response is, “What do I have to do to stay here with my family?”
Providing help with their short-term needs is vital, but there is no coherent plan to provide the long-term legal assistance that will determine who can stay and who will have to return to their home country — all this within the context of the unconscionably divisive political environment regarding immigration that pervades the country.
We cannot abandon our new neighbors. Their hope, optimism, and bravery are abundantly clear. They come with a host of humanitarian needs; the trauma they’ve experienced is real. We must work to mitigate these needs in the short run, but also find ways to provide adequate legal representation so their long-term dreams can also be realized — like those of the waves of immigrants from prior generations who came here and made enormous contributions to our society.
Re: legal services for those who crossed the border specifying they were seeking asylum…
I believe State Senator Hoylman sponsored legislation establishing a “right to counsel in immigration proceedings” – funded at $120 million….
A “right to counsel” is pretty significant not to mention a lot of taxpayer monies
Did this pass?
Perhaps Mr. Russo can discuss
No it did not yet pass.
It is impossible to help all of the people who are economically impoverished in South and Central America let alone the world by allowing them to immigrate to the USA. If we really want to help in a meaningful way then we should immediately lift economic sanctions against Venezuela!
At a local level, it is obvious that we cannot care for these people as we cannot care for our own neighbors. We live in a city where the government thinks that a solution for homeless, hungry and mentally ill people is to allow them to live on the subway. We live in a city with an educational system where 80% of high school “graduates” don’t have the basic or reading skills necessary to enter the city university system. We have children die due to the failure of the ACS system, The list of failures of the NYC and NYS government to protect and help our current citizenry is long and the excuse has always been lack of MONEY. Our tax base has also decreased. Yet we can spend an estimated $4 BILLION on people who are economic “migrants”.
Emptying our closets of clothes and spooning food out in a soup kitchen are not solutions.
Sanctions specialist here. Technically that is an embargo as trading with the entire Maduro government is prohibited. But the fact that it was enacted by Trump and now kept in place by Biden indicates that it has broad support and is here to stay.
Seems like the embargo is backfiring, and hurting the populations of both Venezuela and the United States.
Different things can be true at the same time.
If aiming to get support on this issue, it would be best to acknowledge various things:
Some are seeking political “asylum.”
Many are coming for economic reasons.
There has been significant messaging that the US will provide jobs and services,
Some had stable lives but came due to the messaging.
People are also flying from Asia and Africa to Mexico to cross the border.
Some are great people, some not so great.
Etc.
Why not ask the West Side Democrats what they think, at their migrants event next Thurs.
“West Side Democrats Monthly Membership Meeting:
Asylum Seekers in New York City
On May 13, 2023, Title 42, a federal public health rule that limited access to asylum during the COVID-19 pandemic, expired. Now, those crossing the border will no longer be deported without a screening for asylum claims.
Learn more about this important issue and how, we, as a community can come together to support asylum seekers relocating to New York City.
Guest Speaker
Project Rousseau
When
Thursday, May 24, 2023
7:30 pm
Where
Goddard Riverside
593 Columbus Avenue
(corner of West 88th Street)”
Really nice piece. It is so upsetting to see how migrants are being used as pawns by both parties – neither acting in the best interest of those in true need.
The system could be doing better, but the reality is there is no incentive to work the problem. Combined with the fact that incompetence often looks like malevolence, the anger machine keeps turning – and both parties further solidify their base.
Sad, sad, sad.
It’s so sad that immigrants have to go through this unmitigated disinformation in trying to get themselves and their children settled in the US.. The land of the free? Really!
There is limited help and coordination in getting these people to a safe place to stay and providing them with a way of getting help to apply immediately with the US status.
I lived in Mexico City for two years and can speak some Spanish. (And could possible be helpful in volunteering) But I wonder how people can meaningfully help these humans get organized and find work ASAP. .. And schools for the children who don’t speak a word of English.. how will that end.. if the aren’t taught English really fast? Total chaos.
Thanks for this article Westside Rag. Now if only things could be speeded up.
Jules,
For service info see:
https://www.nyc.gov/site/immigrants/help/city-services.page
And one option for volunteering is:
https://wespeaknyc.cityofnewyork.us/
BTW the Afghan refugees – the people who risked their lives to help the US – are getting little help and little attention….
FYI:
The below link to the City’s immigrant affairs office includes information on services, legal resources etc for the recently-arrived migrants.
https://www.nyc.gov/site/immigrants/help/city-services.page
What is never discussed is the impact of immigration on the US citizens. More people means more crowded schools, higher rents, more environmental degradation (our water resources are drying out), lower wages and higher income inequality. Also, there are billions of people who would benefit by coming to the USA. The problem is that even if we take 5% of them, that’s 100+ million people, and what will happen to US? Meanwhile, billions of people will continue to suffer around the world. Perhaps a better way is to figure out how to help those people so they do not make the perilous journey? Funding good schools might be a good start, creating access to family planning might be another.
So when do you think immigration should have been stopped, in 1900, in 1700?
It’s not about “stopping” immigration. It is about controlling it. There is NO justification for a system where people can just walk across the border and stay. 20 Million here illegally now and 1 Million entering every year.
mike, the OP, sure seems to want to stop immigration.
You didn’t read the context of my comment before posting.
The best thing we could do is to send them back. People should apply in their own country and go through a regular process.
Right, because the USA has made life in Venezuela so easy. /s
The dictator in Venezuela made/makes life miserable for them, way more than the USA. does
Giuliani when he tried to suspended the 2001 mayoral election was being dictatorial. Trump trying to stop the vote count at 2AM on election night in 2020 is Trump being dictatorial.
The president of Venezuela is in no way a dictator, you all just don’t like his policies.
Would be nice if they would help the elderly that live on the street I. Our area. But they are Americans so the church could care less about them
Sadly, that is often true.
Also elected officials – very focused on helping migrants but not residents.
Over past couple of years, several neighbors have sought elected official help in assisting a couple of long-time neighborhood residents in dire and complicated situations….given some generic City agency referrals…
I know what residents really want: it’s for the massive Walmart-sized “plant based” pantry on 86th and WEA, where the author nicely volunteers, to find a larger space more suited for an operation of that magnitude.
The optics are sick. Minorities in mandatory masks standing to wait for handouts from the mainly white volunteers, unmasked. No documents. No proof. Just handing out big bushels of organic healthy food. Did they ask the ppl who live here for permission?
That corner is totally inappropriate for a massive Costco size pantry. Triple parking is illegal.
How does Gale Brewer and the rest not see this? It’s just getting worse and worse. Put an end to it. That pantry should be in Washington Heights or in some dead public school building gym. They need a place for 6 trucks to double park all day long. And another 6 vans at any given time to open their trunks and filler up.
The UWS is so kind its heart has fallen out. The brain, a long time ago dead.
Do I believe in food pantries? Yes
Do I believe in volunteerism? Yes
Do I believe in healthy food? Yes
Do I think organic is best? Yes
Do I think giving ppl free organic healthy food is wow? Yes
Do I think this massive operation belongs on west end and 86th? NO
Does it service mainly local residents? NO
Do they illegally double and triple park? YES
And for that reason, I oppose it 100%.
Apparently the Food Pantry is holding a block “party” on Sunday 5/21 closing off 86th between Riverside and West End – so no vehicles.
People who have mobility issues, can’t walk, etc and need vehicle transportation will be out of luck.
But so what if people are stuck, can’t go to a family event – not important to the Food Pantry
You’ll be glad to hear that the West Side Campaign Against Hunger Food Pantry is building out a distribution center/warehouse in a former USPS facility on 180th Street, with loading bays for the trucks, etc. Should be ready for operation this fall, and we can go back to focusing on local food-insecure residents here on 86th and West End, as we have for the past 40 years. Better all around.
The problem is they are not good neighbors while they are doing this. Like you said the double and triple park and they constantly have trucks parked on 86th Street all the time 24/7. It’s done outside outdoors on the sidewalk which is totally inappropriate for the area.
I recently had personal business that caused me to pass W. 85th Street and West End Avenue going both east and west. I have done this numerous times. Despite this, I was not even aware that anything was going on at the church a couple of hundred feet away. If I had just read your comment without having been in the area, I would have thought that W. 86th Street and West End Avenue had become a madhouse.
That’s the great thing abt nyc streets. If you’re standing on 85th you probably have no idea what’s going on on 86th. It’s kinda cool how that happens.
That’s bc you have your blocks wrong. This is on 86th not 85th and towards 87th. And wrapping around the block. Not sure what business you had but my business is that I live there. And this pantry is servicing five borough of ppl. It is a madhouse in the sense of being packed. No one’s mad. I think madhouse is a silly word to use. The corner has ppl wrapped around the block. If you want, go there tomorrow morning – northeast corner 86 and WEA between the hours of 8-4
I live about a block away. Go by on a day they are passing out provisions. It’s between West End and Broadway on 86th street. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
Steevie’s point is the block is not a madhouse.
My point it is when the Food Pantry is open.
And my point, along with Steevie’s, is that the block is not a mad house when the pantry is open.
I like to think that all the money and time we’re giving to these migrants will pay off down the road when NYC has a thriving population of hard working immigrants keeping the city running.
Mr. Russo, I am not an attorney but I wonder if some of these migrants may need clothes and other supplies. This Sunday my building is hosting a flea market. We may have lots of clothing, personal items and small household items available if they do not sell. Would you and you team be interested in picking up those items that do not sell and give them to our arriving asylum-seekers? If yes please get back in tough with me.
Diana — my suggestion is that you go to St Paul and St Andrew on 86th St. and WEA and inquire how you can get involved. Here’s info from a recent email from the organizers of the Monday resource fair. I’m sure they will appreciate any help you can offer.
DONATIONS- New Toys + Strollers- On Sunday May 21, 12-1pm, the church will be accepting donations of new toys and strollers (we have a big waiting list for strollers). The toys will be given to our clients who come on May 22 for the celebration event.
GENERAL DONATIONS: Please note that the next date that the church is accepting clothing and toy donations is Sunday June 11, 12-1pm. Also accepted and welcomed are Fresh Direct bags, backpacks, new toiletries, scooters and bikes.
Mr. Russo,
It seems incredibly dangerous to encourage bicycle riding for newcomers unfamiliar with NYC and who may not be proficient in English.
The church should be providing Metro Cards
We provide Metrocards every week. Expensive, but as you say, essential to getting around safely.
How can one become a volunteer at the church on 86th street and West end Ave.
Brigitte – my suggestion is that you go to St Paul and St Andrew on 86th St. and WEA and inquire how you can get involved. Here’s info from a recent email from the organizers of the Monday resource fair. I’m sure they will appreciate any help you can offer.
DONATIONS- New Toys + Strollers- On Sunday May 21, 12-1pm, the church will be accepting donations of new toys and strollers (we have a big waiting list for strollers). The toys will be given to our clients who come on May 22 for the celebration event.
GENERAL DONATIONS: Please note that the next date that the church is accepting clothing and toy donations is Sunday June 11, 12-1pm. Also accepted and welcomed are Fresh Direct bags, backpacks, new toiletries, scooters and bikes.
Here is some information about volunteering with these efforts: https://my.lotsahelpinghands.com/request/select-email/spsasanctuary
I don’t think there is anything wrong with asking what is the end game. All I see on the news are thousands of migrants coming into the country and thousands being bused to NY. This is not sustainable.
This is a self-inflicted crisis. It’s quite obvious what the end game is…mass amnesty and millions more Democrat voters, thereby ensuring long-term power. Unvetted, unknown millions pouring into our country everyday with no end in sight, at least for the next 2 years. …all on the backs of all of us, the taxpayers. So we’re only halfway there. And if it’s a crisis here, think of the border states of Texas, Arizona, the end game there to turn those states blue. And how is leasing hotel rooms and providing total care a viable long-term solution??? Because it isn’t . So welcome to socialism. Elections have consequences.
Texas was long a “blue” state.
You have an odd definition of socialism, unless you think immigrants to NYC are going to be housed at government expense in hotels forever.
Bingo! Thank you for speaking the truth.
Thank you Stephan Russo!
Call me indifferent. Where is the end game with migrants? A couple of billion spent on hotel rooms for the homeless during Covid. Now many more billions many times over are projected for the next several years.
My children go to a local elementary school. Several teachers were laid off during the pandemic due to budget cuts and low enrollments due to Covid. Understood.
Now we have how many billions to provide services to migrants?
One of my chidren’s classes had 6-8 migrant children enter her class mid year. It’s held back the education of the entire class. The teacher is doing an amazing job, god bless her.
Where is all this money coming from? We can’t even take care of our own residents who have fallen on hard times or who are now addicts.
This is the problem with big government. It was a feel good story when migrants were first being bused to NYC. All pols were on board with a brand message from the democratic party. Where are all the pols now? Most have gone missing or utterly silent on this issue.
This is a debacle of epic proportions that has no end. When you give people anything for free (no matter how much money they have) they want more. They demand more.
What happened to the old days were people with no status came to this country quietly to work hard and make a life for themselves and their yet to be born children. There are so many of these stories roaming around our city streets on a daily basis. Hard working people with no status who came here and earned everything they have. This is the American Dream. Not housing people in hotels for free with no job prospects.
This issue is simply not just humanitarian. The ripple effects are being gelt city wide. To look at it any other way is simply foolish and naive.
This is pure, political theater. Hundreds of thousands of economic migrants are not our new neighbors. They are guests who have shown up uninvited. And this city is groaning under the weight of so many existing problems, and money is not endless. Without a clear plan to handle so many uncontrolled newcomers, this will just be a colossal mess.
Fixing the asylum process should be step number one. There’s no real reason for the rule to be that you have to be in the country you’re filing in. I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that we just except people from South America who traversed many countries on the way to the US but couldn’t settle there. They didn’t want to. But that is not the US’s responsibility.
Of course the church must focus on Christian charity, one of the oldest theological imperatives. However, that does not resolve the political questions here: what is a rational immigration policy? (Not one that disregards the needs of this country and encourages blatantly specious asylum requests). What is the broader moral solution? (Not one that ignores the long-run fact that migration to the US cannot be the solution to all the problems of the world’s poor and oppressed). What is the fiscal impact on the city? (This is broadly ignored in this discussion and gets minimal attention in the NYT, but will snowball with other fiscal problems very quickly.) Why do these people expect food, clothing, and legal and other services, battening off the common weal when they come her illegally? (They’ve been encouraged by public policy and smugglers and are taking advantage.) When will we have a rational immigration policy, focused on the needs of this country? (Probably never, as we will continue with present policies, which reflect a de-facto coalition between the squishy left and the cheap-labor business interests.)
Dear Stephan, thank you for this informative and caring article. Now, here’s a surprise: You and I were in Colombia in the Peace Corps at the same time! I hope to volunteer at the church this summer and meet up with you. Perhaps, you can email me? From one RPCV to another, be well, ~Tamara
Thank you for simply and starkly putting some faces and stories – and some expert social service provision perspective- to the worrying headlines. The lack of in person assistance for asylum claims is indeed terrifying. And it is everywhere. I saw a piece on Vice News the other day.
This city has absorbed so many waves of confused, impoverished, non English speaking people fleeing horrors and eager to restart from nothing. But it is – as it ever was – rarely comfortable, often desperate…I hope some pipelines to the many jobs needing workers in the US can be found and made, humanely, with dignity, and without the awful exploitations we too often hear about. (Now I will look up how far from reality this crazy notion may be…)
Back 100-150 years ago, our beautiful country was still expanding and reaping the rewards of the industrial revolution. Large and lengthy construction projects such as the railroad system; the NYC subway; highways; factories; and the skyscrapers needed man-power. And our immigrants were there to provide it. It was a win-win for all. Projects were completed and the recently arrived immigrants were able to provide for their family. Such projects no longer exist, and unfortunately, our housing situation, for our own citizens, is not meeting the demand. While it would be nice to provide for all the struggling immigrants that seek refuge, as we did over a hundred years ago, truth is our country is no longer able to provide the services required, without impacting the lack of such services to its own citizens. We are living in different times.
“Beleaguered ” Republican governors? How about heartless Republican governors without a Christian bone in their bodies who delight in sticking it to places like NYC because they think it contributes to their electability and gives them pleasure to create more misery for those for whom they have hate and contempt?
Poverty is not a valid reason for asylum. They broke the law to come and should be returned to their home countries!
Poverty is not the only reason they’re applying for asylum?
Do you have any idea what’s occurring in Haiti?
The parents, grandparents or great-grandparents of every single person living in the U.S., other than Native Americans, came here as an immigrant. Whether it was “legally” via Ellis Island or otherwise, there is NO ONE who can claim more of a right to be here than anyone else. Period.
So it is the height of hypocrisy that anyone would be arguing against, much less vilifying, these new immigrants. Yes, the specifics have changed and policies and procedures need at least tweaking and at best overhaul. But that doesn’t make these people any less deserving of welcome and support.
It is beyond sad that so many people ignore this, or just don’t care.
Thank you for this article. Adding to this, perhaps we should make a distinction between the local homelessness crisis, which is caused by the lack of affordable housing, and the refugee crisis, which is caused by the climate crisis, as well as American foreign policy.
There is a great article in the New Republic summarizing:
The U.S. Created This Migration Crisis. Here’s How to Fix It.
https://newrepublic.com/article/172704/title-42-migrants-border-climate
Housing affordability and homelessness- 2022 Report:
https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Housing-Affordability-Brief_June-2022.pdf
With both happening at the same time, the creation of permanent affordable housing should be a priority with every elected official in the city, and most of the state.