E. Village Check-in Center Turns Down Donations, Migrants Outside Snap Them Up

While New Yorkers are in preparation for the holiday season and dropping temperatures, migrants are flocking to a migrant check in center being run at the former St. Brigid in the East Village.

On Nov. 30, Our Town Downtown was there when a neighborhood Good Samaritan was rebuffed by city workers as she attempted to donate winter clothing for the migrants. It was the rare day when the line outside was gone and only a handful of migrants hanging around. On other days that OT Downtown visited, the line stretched for two blocks.

“I just arrived (to New York) in the morning. I just came to work,” said Oumar from Mauritania who has been in the United States for two months. “In my country it is very bad.” He points to his hand and says, “They discriminate.”

As Oumar goes on to talk about the challenges he faces in Mauritania, a woman–Isabelle–comes out of the shelter with a cart full of clothes, announcing to the migrants that are outside, “They (shelter workers) don’t want it.”

“We need it,” Oumar responds.

A facebook group called “East Village” is calling for action, asking for donations to give to the migrants in the area. Isabelle–62 who has been living in New York for 13 years and is originally from France–saw a comment saying that the migrants had nothing and were kicked out from a shelter in the Bronx. She was moved and decided to do something about it.

Isabelle said she visited the shelter a day earlier on Nov. 29 and gave food to some of the migrants while others in the neighborhood were already there giving out coffee.

Eventually, Isabelle settles for leaving her cart of clothes outside the doors of the shelter and before she even has time to step away, Oumar and a slew of other migrants eagerly snap up the clothes they are able to get their hands on.

This is Isabelle’s second visit, bringing four jackets, twelve pairs of socks, and three hats.

“I asked the security guard if I could bring clothes and he said they don’t take donations so I would need to give them to the migrants directly,” she told OT Downtown. Before Isabelle could finish her statement, she stops to intervene in a fight over a blue coat between Oumar and another migrant. “I mean come on, you’re not children,” she scolds.

The migrant shelter is processing migrants inside an auditorium of the former St. Brigid School, that the NY Archdiocese closed in 2019. It is currently the only processing center in the five boroughs that is accepting reapplications for new shelters.

Some of the people outside when OT Downtown were women although the lines are usually overwhelmingly single men.

“In my country the crime rate is really bad and on top of that they don’t pay us well” said Estephanie, 24, from Ecuador, one of the few women in line. “I used to work in cleaning and I would get $17 for working from 7 A.M to 8 P.M.” She has been in the US for three months and said she is on her way to a shelter in Queens that is allowing her to stay for 30 additional days. “My hopes are to find a better way of living with a bit more security,” she said, speaking Spanish to the OT Downtown reporter.

“If you’re planning on coming to the US, think twice because in reality it is not all pretty birds and fantasies like people say. It is not until someone comes here that they see how things really are,” said Estephanie.

Both women were kicked out of a migrant shelter in Port Chester, NY in Westchester and Clarissa Aguer, 36, said her belongings had been stolen while she was there.

Asked about her experiences is America, Clarissa Aguer, 36, from Venezuela said, “This is horrible, it’s horrible...I had to sleep on the street the day before yesterday. I was kicked out at one o’clock in the morning. Here (processing center at the former St. Brigid) they have been very nice, I can’t complain.” She said she found a place to stay in another shelter after visiting the check in center. “In Venezuela they pay $20 every 15 days which, here is nothing. It’s not enough for anything.” She said she is the mother of two kids who are still back in Venezuela.

“It’s not fair that some immigrants can stay in [Port] Chester for up to a year for free by the government when we’re also immigrants looking for a place to stay,” said Estephanie.

When OT Downtown visited the migrant center again on Dec. 8th there was a line outdoor of the former school on East 7th St., north up Ave. B past the St. Brigid and St. Emmerick Church and then eastward on E. 8th St., making about two solid blocks of people hoping to find a new shelter.

While press reports say that most of the migrants are streaming into the United States from Latin America, not all are coming from south of the border.

When OT Downtown visited on Dec. 8, we spoke with one immigrant from from Colombia and another from Venezuela but others told us they had arrived from Senegal, France, and even China.

Mayor Adam’s in the midst of a trying to close a $7 billion budget gap that he says is caused by arrival in NYC of over 140,000 migrants. He’s ordered all city agencies to trim their budgets by 5 percent to make up for the shortfall.

Of the immigrants who have landed in the city, he said over 60,000 migrants are in the city’s homeless shelter system, which is reaching a break point.

Adams has said the migrant crisis is a federal problem, and the city should not have to shoulder the burden without federal aid.

He journeyed to Washington D.C. on Dec. 7, and met with Senator Chuck Schumer and Democratic minority leader in the House, Rep. Hakeem Jefferies but told reporters in D.C. that he did not get to meet with President Biden.