By: Yvonne Liu

Juan Carlos recently arrived in Albany, N.Y. He’s 26 years old. A few months ago Juan and his brother left Venezuela to escape government violence at home.

“It’s a lot of instability,” says Coronel. “But the situation in Venezuela has gotten impossible. You can’t walk down the street without a government official shaking you down for money every couple of blocks. We just want to work and live in peace.”

When they first came to the states, the brothers lived in two shelters at the Texas border, one in Brownsville and one in San Antonio. They then lasted four days with a relative in Boston, then ended up in an extremely crowded New York City shelter. They immediately agreed to transfer to a shelter in Albany after officials told them it would be less crowded.

Even though places like Albany welcome new arrivals, many other cities are hostile to immigrants. Local non-profits are trying to step up, they too, are stretched thin.

“In these non-sanctuary cities, folks are very much in fear of getting deported,” says Micky Jimenez, executive director of the non-profit Capitol District Latinos. “If they work there, they go to work, and go back home. They are very much afraid.”

When New York City sent a bus with 24 immigrants to Colonie, a non-sanctuary city, The Republican town supervisor, Peter Crummy, was blindsided. He’s suing New York, but he’s also infuriated by the lack of guidance from the Biden administration and Congress.

“The federal government has created chaos in our country by not responding and making a plan for these folks,” he says. “The solution lies at the feet of the federal government. Because immigration is decidedly a federal issue. It’s not a town issue. Or a village issue.”

Efren Rojas works as a mechanic in Rockland County, N.Y. While Rojas is not opposed to people migrating, he thinks the federal government shouldn’t offer help.

“I was always scared that if I asked for help, I could get deported. I’m not resentful about that. I came to work not to ask for help,” he says. “They’re abusing the system.”

Another immigrant who recently arrived, Johnson Coronel, is a 26-year-old Venezuelan. He lives in a shelter with no income. When he saw the “Help Wanted” sign, he and his friends went and asked for work.

” They are told no one speaks Spanish, or they are asked for a work permit — which no one has yet, ” Coronel says. With immigration courts backed up, getting a permit to work could take as many as two years. “

He has no income and lives in a shelter in a sanctuary city, next to towns where migrants are not welcome. He is stuck.

” We’re tired,” Coronel says. “One day we’re here, the next day we’re there. It’s time to say, ‘This is it. We’re staying here. This is home.”