Inclusion
By Robert Beck
The line of immigrants and asylum-seekers stretched down 86th onto West End. They arrive early. It was just past eight in the morning and already eighty-some degrees. I went in the side door of St. Paul & St. Andrew Church and met Shirley, who showed me around the sanctuary so I could pick a spot before the doors officially opened. She apologized for the lack of air conditioning. I would need a little elevation to see over people and decided to set up near the piano on the side altar. I had the initial drawing of the room in place as people started filing in the door. It was hot in there. I could feel a bead of sweat working its way down the small of my back. The brushes were slippery in my hands.
Today, people from many local community organizations, including Jewish and Muslim congregations, will help these people navigate their perilous political, transportation, medical, and legal needs. They will feed them, give them sanitary supplies, and answer their questions. Not far from where I worked, a woman was talking into a microphone as resource information was projected on a screen. Her voice reverberated from speakers, backed by the sound of large fans located around the perimeter. People were attentive and focused, children behaved, and the process was orderly. Volunteers on the balcony were assembling backpacks with basic supplies.
I painted the people as a mass, but each was a story. The concerned father, standing in the aisle bouncing his infant son in his arms, listening to the speaker explain complex immigration requirements. The woman at the folding table, papers in hand, talking to the lawyer. Wives and husbands trying to protect their families, trying to survive. It’s not lost on me that my forebears were immigrants. My bet is yours were too.
When I ran downstairs for a bathroom break, I passed the basement area where the West Side Campaign Against Hunger operates. There was a lot going on in there. Another room was filled with kids registering for a theater camp. There were missions everywhere. During Covid, the church removed the carpet in the sanctuary and put castors on the pews so they could configure the space as needed, and it is.
St. Paul & St. Andrew is not a wealthy church. The roof leaks. I already mentioned the air conditioning. There is a program to try and get in front of that (your help will be appreciated), but they have a lot of balls to keep their eye on. It’s all in their official playbook—however, doing it is a big job. They are a Sanctuary Church in a Sanctuary City. You will find tutoring, sheltering, racial and LGBQ advocacy, ESL classes, support for women who have experienced exploitation and trafficking, and Sunday services. On top of that, you just missed a terrific performance of a quartet of French horns with a guest tuba. Really.
That is way too much to fit into one painting, but if you look at the image and listen carefully, you can hear all that good stuff happening just outside the edges.
To learn more about the church, visit stpaulandstandrew.org, and to contact Robert Beck or come to his 79th Street studio, visit robertbeck.net.
Nice article and picture too. Just want to comment that all immigrants are not the same. In the past, most immigrants entered the country legally, now there are just way too many who break the law to get here. Every country has laws, with many more strict than ours. It is a disgrace that our immigration laws are willfully as it endangers those trying to come, is heavy burden on citizens and legal immigrants and encourages people to ignore other laws.
Today’s immigrants are no different from any other group that came here for a better life. They are the ones who are the more ambitious, more driven and more willing to endure risks and hardship to get here.
They are seeking asylum. Which means they have not entered illegally. Most will be denied, and then their status may change.
In the interim the best for all concerned is to give them temporary work permits so they can go where jobs are. We have over 8 million job openings nationwide, and the notion that these people lack skills is nonsense. They come from places where they gain skills such as construction and maintenance (of buildings and machinery), child and elder care, farming, and retail and service work (especially those who come from cities).
Again, the risk takers and driven come here, just like our great grandparents. The ones who aren’t stay. The whole idea of the American Dream and upward mobility remains the domain of immigrants, their children, and their grandchildren.
Paul, were earlier waves of immigrants enriching drug cartels? Were earlier waves of immigrants housed on the taxpayers dime? What is the definition of asylum? Were earlier waves of immigrants this badly managed? Are we a nation of laws? My grandfather came under the 1948 displaced persons act that allowed 200,000 immigrants after Europe was trying to recover from a world War. There were 15X that amount of illegal immigrants just in 2022. If they’re skilled and hard working why don’t they fix their own country?
Regardless of their ambition, they are working the system under the guise of “seeking asylum”. And BTW, poverty and criminality in one’s home country are not reasons that qualify for immigration…nor is taking advantage of what they’re being provided at taxpayer cost.
The trump administration unilaterally made the decision to exclude those factors from asylum but in fact those were the main reasons why huge numbers of Jews and Italians came here over 100 years ago.
Where governments are not effective crime gangs take over and run the place. They impress teenage boys into joining. You are arguing that people fleeing that reality aren’t legitimately seeking asylum?
That is not quite true. Asylum is a special status and it required a credible fear of imminent harm before the Trump administration. What the Trump administration did was make it harder to claim asylum, because economic refugees now know that if they do so, it will be years before they get a hearing and have their claim debunked.
A credible fear hearing is meant to distinguish between those fleeing a general crime situation like what SG described (which some US cities also have) and a person who has a specific threat against them.
The Jews and Italians who came a century ago were not generally claiming asylum, though some likely had a credible fear of harm in their home countries.
Why have the work permits not been given by the Biden Administration? It is very curious.
The law requires a certain amount of time in the US before they can get a work permit. It’s like 6 months or some ridiculous number.
Go where the jobs are? Who pays for that? These people don’t speak English. They currently don’t have work permits. The states they would potentially be going to don’t have public transit. They don’t have cars, drivers licenses or money. Once again most states aren’t sanctuary states and actually follow labor and immigration laws. I know that’s shocking to NYC liberals. There are reasons they are here in NYC.
My teenaged great grandfather walked from Boston to Chicago after fleeing Germany where the military draft enslaved men for decades. My husband’s did the same, walking from Philadelphia to North Carolina, staying with German families all along the way. Even then, local folks complained about the immigrants, despite the fact that they worked hard, loved this nation , and helped make it great. They learned English ,and became exemplary citizens. Today’s immigrants are doing the same.
Thanks to Robert Beck for this poignant and spirited painting and essay. Wonderful to shine a light on this church, its steadfast mission and extraordinary range of outreach and cultural programs deserving community recognition and support.
Thank you Amy. That was the point.
Robert, thank you for this wonderful painting ( and the others you have done throughout the Upper Westside). I thank you too for capturing the spirit and services offered. One of the most rewarding parts of my week is participating in these Monday programs. It’s a joy to meet all of these people and do what small bit I can to make them feel welcomed.