NEW YORK | New York City is engulfed in an unprecedented wave of migrants that are overflowing shelters.
• Read also: Canada’s migrant crisis: Free bus tickets to Roxham Road
• Read also: Roxham Road: the SQ must form an “enclave” to block the way to migrants, according to the PQ
Over the past year, no less than 44,000 refugee status seekers have settled in the American metropolis, filling the accommodation centers that welcome them beyond their capacity.
The trend has even increased recently, with 12,000 refugees arriving in New York in January alone, according to city government figures.
Our Bureau of Investigation has observed that entire hotels, some of which have several hundred rooms, have been requisitioned by the municipal authorities.
We had to declare a state of emergency by setting up temporary centers of great capacity, but criticized because of their rudimentary comfort.
New York City is the target of concerted action by the governors of some southern states who are sending migrants, who have arrived in large numbers across the Mexican border, by busloads to cities in the northern United States.
Immense pressure
Overwhelmed, the mayor of the City, Eric Adams, conceded that the pressure on municipal services was “tremendous”.
He estimates the cost of the crisis at $2 billion.
Met yesterday at the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal where aid is being distributed to migrants (see text below), Eduars Antonio Maleros Rivas is typical of migrants arriving in the American metropolis.
The 30-year-old from Venezuela fled his country in the hope of a better life.
“The problem in my country is that we have no possibility of finding employment,” he explains to us in Spanish, also mentioning the repression that reigns there.
He’s only been in New York for a few days.
To Canada?
When Eduars is asked if he is thinking of taking his journey further north, to Canada, he replies that he is currently giving himself some time to think things over.
“We are talking about better advantages and opportunities in Canada compared to the United States. But first I want to spend some time here to see how it goes,” he explains.
A young couple with a toddler, Darling and Starling Senado are from Venezuela, like Eduars. We found them at the Watson Hotel, whose 600 spacious rooms are entirely reserved for refugees.
They were luckier than other asylum seekers housed in the uncomfortable temporary centres. The couple haven’t made many plans yet. For now, they are relishing their decision to leave a country that left them “no longer any chance of leading a normal life”.
Few requests for free tickets
Migrants who have obtained a free bus ticket to Plattsburgh, in order to cross the Canadian border at Roxham Road, seem few in number for the moment.
Our Bureau of Investigation went yesterday and the day before yesterday to the bus terminal of the Port Authority of New York, from where carriers leave for the major cities of the United States.
At the boarding gate of the line that makes the trip to Plattsburgh, in the State of New York, it was impossible to meet a single person whose ticket had been paid for by the municipal authorities, despite a dozen Interviews conducted with migrants likely to take the famous Roxham Road.
The one-way trip to Plattsburgh costs an average of US$80 per person. Several migrants met seemed surprised to learn of the existence of this refund.
Controversial politics
The policy that the City of New York would pay the bus tickets of illegal migrants who want to take Roxham Road has caused a stir in Quebec.
As the New York Post reported on Monday, it was possible to see the presence of National Guard soldiers at the bus terminal, where they set up a help center for migrants. But we have not been able to find anyone who has obtained free tickets, as indicated by the New York daily.
Photo Jules Richer
At the same station, members of the National Guard weren’t too busy giving out bus tickets yesterday.
The city administration nevertheless confirmed the existence of the policy, specifying that it applied to any migrant who wants to leave the city to go elsewhere in the United States.
