In the wake of migrants being forced to sleep on Manhattan sidewalks in recent days, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is pleading with President Joe Biden to provide assistance.
“We need help,” Adams said Monday. “And it’s not going to get any better. From this moment on, it’s downhill.”
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More than 93,000 migrants have come to the New York City since last spring. Adams has blamed the White House for not sending enough financial aid or acting on requests like expedited work authorization.
On August 2, Deputy Mayor for Health And Human Services Anne Williams-Isom held a briefing on asylum seeker response. Her speech reads:
I’m Anne Williams-Isom, and I’m the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services. We’re here today for our weekly asylum seeker briefing. Thank you for joining us. Asylum seekers arriving to our country are seeking to build the American dream. Here in New York City, we are working to give them a shot at that. We continue to respond to the asylum seekers who arrive here with humanity and compassion, even as our city is stretched to its breaking point. More than 95,000 asylum seekers have arrived here since last spring. These are human beings, someone’s brother, someone’s mother, someone’s grandchild.
In the absence of a national strategy, our administration has stepped up. We have given them a place to sleep. Yesterday when I was at the Roosevelt, I saw a Pack ‘n Play with a little one in there, just desperately trying to get some rest from their journey. We have given them food and blankets and clothing and medicine and legal help. We have enrolled over 18,000 children in our schools and so much more. New York City continues to do more than any other city in this nation, and I’m proud to announce today that in little over a month since we announced our Asylum Seeker Application Health Center, we have assisted migrants in submitting 1,300 asylum applications.
This innovative model is the first in the nation to combine government, private law firms and nonprofits to provide asylum application at this scale. Applying for asylum is a critical step to towards work authorization, which is the north star for our administration. Asylum seekers want to work, I can’t say that enough. We hear it every day. As the mayor says, often there is nothing more anti-American than not letting people work. We want to thank the more than 30 private law firms that have been working pro bono to help us with these applications under the supervision of experienced immigration lawyers and alongside application assistance and interpreters.
Throughout this crisis New Yorkers have stepped up to help their fellow brothers and sisters in need, and they are continuing to do so. Today we are announcing that the city’s leading universities have committed to providing undergraduate and graduate student application assistance throughout the fall. This includes four universities of New York schools: Baruch College of City University of New York Schools, Baruch College, City College, Hunter College, and Queens College. Along with Columbia University, New York Law and New York University, all of which will sponsor at least three full days at the clinic this fall giving their students the chance to volunteer as application assistants.
These universities are providing the students with an ability to earn credit for their time helping at the center. That’s real world learning experience. Both my husband and I, when we attended law school, did clinics in that work and it really helped us to provide for our real life experience as we were young lawyers, coming together from all corners of New York City to help our newest New Yorkers get their applications in so that they can work and begin their quest towards the American dream.
But we cannot continue to absorb tens of thousands of newcomers on our own without more help from the state and the federal government. Last week, along with Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, Dean Nadler, and members of the New York Congressional Delegation, Mayor Adams met with Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to discuss our city’s needs related to the asylum seeker crisis. We made it clear that New York City cannot continue to carry the weight of a national problem on our own. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. We need others to step up and play their role as New York City is doing. This is a humanitarian issue about real people and real lives. Asylum seekers are coming here to seek the American dream. It is time for the rest of the nation to step up.
Before I pass it over to Georgina, I want to thank our other partners who have joined us today. The progress we’ve been able to make has been due to our whole-of-city approach alongside our legal partners and now including a number of our city’s academic institutions. With us today, we have Liliana Vaamonde from Columbia Law School, Matt Gewolb from New York Law, Melissa Begg from Columbia School of Social Work, Nathalia Holtzman from Queens College, Tony Liss from City College, Linda Essig from Baruch College, and Mary Cavanaugh from Hunter College.
Again, I want to extend the administration’s gratitude to each and every law firm, nonprofit, academic institution and fellow New Yorkers from each of the organizations involved in this. When I was at the Harlem Children’s Zone, Geoffrey Canada would tell me all the time that despair is contagious, but so is hope. You are giving New Yorkers hope today. We hope that that is contagious and we are able to give the asylum seekers what they need so that they can continue on their journey. This humanitarian crisis has required a whole-of-city response, and each of you are making that possible. Let me now turn the mic over to NYU Provost Georgina Dopico, to say a few words on behalf of all the academic institutions working with us.
