What the New York City Migrant Crisis Is and Isn’t

It doesn’t take more than a couple of strolls around the block on East 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan for the faces of New York City’s most recent arrivals to reveal themselves. On a relatively quiet Thursday afternoon in late September, the migrants calmly came and went through the front and side doors of the Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main asylum intake center, which the New York Times recently described as the “new Ellis Island.” Some had been staying at the location, not far from Grand Central station, for a few days, others for several months. 

Toddlers played with balloons and little scooters on the sidewalks and adults killed time chatting next to a row of parked motorcycles. Some awaited transportation to different shelters across the city. Others were figuring it out on their own. A family from Venezuela carried all their belongings piled up on a shopping cart as they slowly made their way to the subway to yet another hotel Downtown. By mid-afternoon, several children came back from school. One mother told me it’s only been a week since they arrived and her son is already enrolled in the school system. She was thankful for the information and assistance the city has been providing.