NEW YORK – New York City has strengthened its asylum assistance system with a network of facilities that will go into operation on Tuesday, in the face of uncertainty about the consequences of impending changes in deportation policy at the state border. and Mexico.
“We are planning everything possible for the long term. There is a lot of uncertainty about what will happen next week,” immigration affairs chief Manuel Castro said today, noting that the city is focusing on developing “infrastructure ” in case there is a “surge” of asylum applications.
December 21 is the deadline that US Justice has given to Joe Biden’s government to prepare to suspend Title 42, a health regulation which, under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been used to expel migrants from the highway arriving in the southern border.
It was established during the Donald Trump Republican Administration (2017-2021) and will be replaced by Title 8, which allows migrants to apply for asylum at ports of entry and gives the government the power to deport or impose sanctions on those who do not satisfy the requirements.
30,000 ARRIVED IN NEW YORK IN JUST ONE YEAR
The primary “resource navigation center” for applicants arriving in the Big Apple is at the American Red Cross headquarters in western Manhattan, which served 7,000 people in about four months of operation, the law explained. members of the mayor’s office visit this Monday.
This center, located on the third floor and which usually receives migrants by appointment, from tomorrow will also occupy the fourth floor and a dozen “satellite” centers will also be added in the five boroughs of New York, in which eight organizations will operate. organizations contracted for a total of $2.1 million.
The city council estimates that about 30,000 people have come to New York this year alone, many by bus from the southern state of Texas from Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican critical of Democratic open borders policy; Of the total, around 20,500 are in the city’s reception system.
Castro stressed that the federal government “needs a plan” to organize the reception of immigrants arriving across the border in a “humane” way, unlike the actions taken by Abbott, and expressed that “it is hoped” that the White House has that plan ready “within a week” of the legislative change.
“Let’s wait to see what will happen after the revocation of title 42 next week”, reiterated the immigration commissioner, who showed the media the services offered in these centres, such as legal advice, medical visits, emotional support and help to families with school- aged children.
The requirements to be able to use the services of the dozen “navigation” centers are to have arrived in January 2022 and to have crossed the border applying for asylum, to provide the required documentation to enter and live in New York City, explained the manager.
Castro recalled that eight to ten buses a day with more than 400 people were received in this summer’s wave, which forced the establishment of an emergency accommodation system in shelters and hotels to cover the most immediate needs , which still works but is different than “navigating resources”.
“We hope that people start leaving the reception system and find accommodation, for example, in shared apartments in immigrant neighborhoods, which is why we are moving towards this model of satellite sites” and expanding the capacity to offer them services legal, he added. .
Castro specified that asylums were not designed for asylum seekers, but they use them because when they arrive they have no one, and for this reason much importance is being given to training, especially in the construction sector, so that these applicants can go ahead and build a future while their asylum applications are processed.
