Black immigrants turned out in the hundreds on Tuesday across from New York City Hall during a hearing about racial inequities in the city’s shelter and immigrant support systems.
Over 1,500 immigrants, mostly from Guinea, assembled in City Hall Park, after it became clear that only around a hundred people would be accommodated inside for the hearing.
The City Council considered relatively minor proposals. One set of bills would require administrators to collect better data on migrants in city services. Another effort, a resolution, called on the federal government to eliminate or to reimburse immigration application fees.
City Council members are asking for better data because they believe, with some evidence acknowledged by city officials, that Black migrants are more often turned away from shelters, denied access to help in their native languages, and less able to find accommodations for religious practices than others
City officials say African migrants are more likely to arrive to the city without children, meaning they’re often less of a priority for limited shelter space. Under a recent legal settlement, the city can evict adult migrants after 30 days in a shelter and 60 days for those under age 23, before forcing them to reapply for another spot. It’s unclear how often those migrants end up sleeping on the street or in a subway car.
“The 30-60 day notices disproportionately affect Black immigrants,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés, Chair of the Committee on Immigration, in a gilded hearing room Tuesday. Dozens of immigrants listened to proceedings on headsets with access to simultaneous translations in Wolof, Haitian Creole, Arabic, French, Fula and Bambara.
Rallies in support of City Council proposals are common, but usually draw only a few dozen people, often just the most tuned-in activists. But Guineans cheering and clapping outside Tuesday said that by word of mouth, often on WhatsApp groups with fellow immigrants, they learned about the event and came to support City Council members, or see if they could get information about jobs and housing. Some learned for the first time that they’re eligible for city-run health insurance
