How New York City Became the Center Of a Debate Over Immigration
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
So when we think of immigration, our eyes often turn to the Southwest - right? - not the Northeast. But over the last few months, New York City has become an unlikely battleground for migrant rights. The city, like others, has struggled to deal with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants bussed in from Republican-led states like Texas and Florida. New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, has been calling on Washington to help.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ERIC ADAMS: Let them work. We must expedite work authorization for asylum-seekers not in the future but now.
CHANG: There have been anti-immigration protests, like this one about new shelters on Staten Island, a politically conservative borough.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CURTIS SLIWA: They don't have enough handcuffs. They don't have enough cops. They don't have enough cars. We're going to be here 24/7, 365. They should stay in Manhattan.
CHANG: And there have been questions about how well the New York City education system is prepared to handle an influx of new students.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHRISTOPHER: Department of education is vastly under-resourced for everything. Every kid that we've had so far has been incredibly eager to learn. They just want to be kids. They're children.
CHANG: So amid rising pressure to do something to alleviate this problem, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it was granting temporary protected status to nearly half a million Venezuelans, thousands of whom are in New York City. This move allows them to apply immediately for work permits. CONSIDER THIS - New York City has landed at the center of a debate about immigration. What does that mean for the migrants who actually live there?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CHANG: From NPR, I'm Ailsa Chang. It's Thursday, September 21.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CHANG: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. Like we said, the White House has announced this week that it's granting temporary protected status, or TPS, to Venezuelans who've been in the U.S. as of July 31. That means roughly 472,000 more people will now be eligible for work permits. That's in addition to the nearly 250,000 Venezuelans the Department of Homeland Security estimates are currently covered by TPS. This policy change will impact several cities, especially New York, which has seen the arrival of some 100,000 migrants just over the past year. I spoke about this with Jasmine Garsd, who's been covering the immigration story in New York.
So, Jasmine, I mean, for months, cities have been asking the federal government to help them to address this huge influx of migrants. So does this announcement that temporary protected status will be extended to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans substantively change anything?
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Yeah, it's a really big deal. Consider New York City. A hundred thousand or so people have arrived since spring of 2022. Many are asylum-seekers, so they're in the system. Many are from Venezuela. And here's the thing. When you come into the U.S. seeking asylum, you can't just start working. Even if you're here legally, you can't get a job.
CHANG: Right.
GARSD: The process of getting a work permit is like this bureaucratic labyrinth. You have to wait months, sometimes over a year. And what cities have been saying - cities like New York, cities like Chicago - what they've been saying to the federal government is, wait a minute, this could be a really big financial burden on us. This is a really big financial burden on us. Let people work. And I should tell you that this isn't just city government saying this. It's also businesses that have a labor shortage - sectors like hospitality, landscaping, pharmacies. And I've gone to these shelters and talked to people who were pharmacists, teachers, construction workers in their home countries. I spoke to Scott Grams. He is the executive director of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association, and here's how he put it.
SCOTT GRAMS: I don't think there's a single person who can't think of a situation in the last six months where they walked into a business and it wasn't understaffed. Outside of periods of crushing recession, labor is always our biggest challenge. And that's why landscapers don't get back to you for about nine weeks if you try to call them in May.
GARSD: So back to your question. Unlike asylum-seekers, when you get temporary protected status, or TPS, you're immediately eligible for employment authorization.
CHANG: I see. OK. So this could really help out the situation for cities right now. I know that you've been specifically reporting on schools, and New York is the largest school district in the United States. And in the last week, classes have started, right? That includes around - what? - 20,000 migrant children. And I heard that you spent some time with kids and parents and teachers. What have you been hearing from them?
GARSD: Yeah. I've been speaking to migrant parents and kids who are really excited about starting school, families who are just thrilled to be able to give their kids an education, many parents who didn't have that opportunity themselves back home. I met a woman named Alejandra and her daughter Vanessa. They were selling fruit snacks in Manhattan, and they asked that their last name be withheld because they left family behind in Ecuador and it's a really scary situation with cartel violence there.
ALEJANDRA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: And what Alejandra told me is she herself didn't get to go to school in Ecuador. She was one of the heads of household. And it's a very big deal for her to send her daughter to high school this year. Now, some parents, longtime New Yorkers whose kids have been in school since kindergarten - they told me they're really concerned about whether or not the New York school system could handle this kind of influx. Maude Maron is a mom who is on a council that advises schools in Manhattan, and she said she was really worried about the fact that 20,000 or so kids just came into the school system and there's a shortage of English-as-a-new-language teachers.
MAUDE MARON: But there should also be a question of, what is the impact going to have on kids that have suffered many times over a year of learning loss from COVID shutdowns and pandemic? And now they're going to have classrooms filled to the brim with migrant kids that teachers are unprepared and, in some cases, incapable of teaching.
GARSD: And I think what's making her really anxious is that she says she hasn't heard a peep from the New York Department of Education about a plan. I spoke to them. I spoke to the New York Department of Education, and they said this year they've added 188 English-as-a-new-language teachers...
CHANG: Wow.
GARSD: ...And are looking at another 140 candidates. But, you know, if you think about that, given the amount of kids that are coming in, that's, like, a drop in the bucket.
CHANG: Totally. Well, have you talked to actual teachers? How are they feeling about this?
GARSD: Yeah. It's a mix. I mean, teachers I spoke to were optimistic and super-compassionate towards these new kids that are coming in. But they also were wondering, well, how are we going to do this? Everyone seemed to agree that the New York school system was in a crisis long before migrant kids came. And what I heard was a concern among teachers that these new students will be scapegoated for a problem that already existed. I spoke to one English-as-a-new-language teacher, Rosie Frascella, who had a really interesting perspective.
ROSIE FRASCELLA: There's a really strong need in the United States for us to be multilingual. Most of the world is multilingual.
CHANG: I mean, I couldn't agree more. But can we just step back and look at the wider picture here? How are people who maybe aren't directly involved in the school system - how are they feeling about these new arrivals? Is there any pushback?
GARSD: You know, for the most part, I'd say New Yorkers are either sympathetic or they're taking a wait-and-see attitude. This is mostly a Democratic city, and it's also an immigrant city. But there have been protests. I've been spending a lot of time in the borough of Staten Island, which, unlike the rest of the city, is quite conservative.
CHANG: Right.
GARSD: And migrants have been sent to live in Staten Island in shelters. And they've been met with a lot of resistance. Here's Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella.
VITO FOSSELLA: The politics on Staten Island is a lot different. You know, for example, we voted for a different candidate for president. We voted for a different candidate for governor. We voted for a different candidate for mayor.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: It's more conservative.
FOSSELLA: Much, yes, relative to the rest of the city. So there's - folks may be listening and say, well, this is what you wanted. This is what you get. And I would - I think I speak for most Staten Islanders. No. This isn't what we wanted, and we hope not to get it. And here we are fighting and fighting on every front. And we're just being told, tough luck.
CHANG: Staten Island is like an island unto itself inside the city of New York.
GARSD: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, almost everyone I spoke to on Staten Island said this is going to really influence how they vote in the 2024 presidential election. Fossella has even gone so far as to say he would support Staten Island seceding from New York, which seems pretty unlikely that that would happen.
CHANG: Right.
GARSD: But a lot of people there seem really unhappy about this situation.
CHANG: That is NPR's Jasmine Garsd. Thank you so much, Jasmine.
GARSD: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CHANG: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. I'm Ailsa Chang. And one more thing - the engine behind CONSIDER THIS is All Things Considered, our afternoon news show. It's a mix of the deep dives you get here along with more stories that you're going to want to hear. So visit npr.org/allthingsconsidered to stream it live every afternoon.
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.