Long lines continue in front of ICE in Manhattan after an appointment

After NY1 News reported last week that hundreds of asylum-seeking immigrants in New York are spending hours in the cold waiting for their appointments, the crisis appears to be deepening.

And it is that, eager to one day regularize their status, immigrants navigate the complicated legal system even if it involves overcoming many adversities.

Just like last time, we found nursing mothers, crying babies, and long lines outside the ICE offices located at 26 Federal Plaza.

Given this situation, the question arises: what are local authorities doing to mitigate this problem?

“The (city) council of the city has at this time sent a letter to the interim director of the ICE, and also a letter to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Mayorca, urging them to address this serious delay in the must solve this problem,” said Shahana Hanif, chair of the city council’s immigration committee.

Councilwoman Hanif added that unfortunately this is our immigration system, a system created to bankrupt immigrant families and this is just one example of what many are calling inhumane treatment by the agency.

“It’s unfair, it keeps families waiting for years, it destabilizes our immigrant communities, having to wait for an appointment that they made, appointments that were recorded. These are people who are respecting what they understand, it’s the process to really integrate into our city,” added the commissioner.

Jose Suárez had his appointment at 7 in the morning and was one of the first in line. He said he took these extreme measures because the office only lets in the number of people the agency can see that day, regardless of who is on an appointment or not.

“But this collapses, people come from all countries, all nationalities, and there is no time, so one here comes early and leaves,” Suárez said.

It was just dawn, and the agency began turning away many of them, leaving them out in the cold.

ICE says it is working to address delays in current processes.

These cases add to an unprecedented backlog in immigration courts, with more than 180,000 cases pending in the city and nearly 2 million nationwide as of October, according to a report by Syracuse University’s Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse.

According to Councilwoman Hanif, there will be a City Council hearing in a couple of weeks to look at the resources the city has provided to asylum seekers so far and how the mayor is working to control the immigration crisis.