By: Jingwei Zhao
Residents of Venezuela have been fleeing the country due to the government violence. Many of the people who previously lived in Venezuela have relocated to New York, and it has been getting crowded, with the state receiving over 60,000 migrants in the past year.
One of them is Johnson Coronel, who originally came from an unstable country. He and his brother fled Venezuela and went to New York City, where they found proper shelter.
However, there were 12 people per room in the haven that they stayed in, so when officials said that Albany would be far less crowded, they immediately traveled there. The pair wanted to go back to their home country, “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,” said Coronel.
Other places are not as welcoming as Albany, with many localities not wanting immigrants living in their areas. This is why more local nonprofits have been started, but they have also found themselves lacking resources and too many new arrivals to handle. “In these non-sanctuary cities, folks are very much in fear of getting deported. If they work there, they go to work, and go back home. They are very much afraid,” says Micky Jimenez, executive director of Capitol District Latinos.
New York is one of the most common destinations for immigrants, and the city is not dealing with it well. To combat this, the un-sanctuary city of Colonie was sent a bus of 24 migrants to the town from New York officials. This led to Peter Crummey, Republican and town supervisor of Colonie, has sued New York, and is also disappointed in Biden’s lack of guidance in the situation.
Crummey believes that New York not accepting migrants is a problem that the U.S government should focus on addressing head on, rather than letting unfold on its own. He thinks, “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.”
In Rockland County, N.Y, most of the people are white, with less than 20% of the population being Latino, according to a census in 2022. Efren Rojas, a mechanic and resident of Rockland County, says, “I’ve always overheard people talk badly about Hispanics. No matter where you come from, your family can be here for hundreds of years, they will still see you as from another country. Your skin is a little dark, and you will make people uncomfortable.”
Some people do not want migrants coming to the United States, such as Anthony Gerome of Rockland County. “People come to the suburbs thinking they’re gonna have a better life and a safer environment. Because it’s not only a fiscal problem. It’s a safety issue. We don’t know who these people are,” Gerome believes. He does not trust migrants who are allowed to pursue their careers in the U.S.
However, there are still many others who advocate for migration to the U.S., such as federal judge Nelson Román, who believes that the bans of migration in Rockland and Orange County were reminiscent of “Jim Crow Laws.” Dan Irizarry, Chairman of Capitol District Latinos, believes, “We can greet [migrants], we can clothe them, we can feed them to a degree. But then what happens to them once they try to assimilate into this local area that’s not really friendly to them at all?”