More than 1,000 migrants flocked to New York City’s City Hall on Tuesday morning after some individuals heard false rumors they could receive work visas and green cards for showing up, the New York Post reported.
The large gathering of migrants coincided with a 10 a.m. hearing titled “The Experiences of Black Migrants in New York City.” The hearing aimed to “understand how the [Mayor Eric Adams] Administration is addressing language access barriers, cultural competency challenges, health needs, and other roadblocks.”
Some of the migrants gathered at city hall to participate in a “rally to uplift the experience of Black migrants,” according to the New York Police Department, Newsweek reported. Only 250 individuals were allowed inside city hall to attend the hearing. Others arrived to demand easier and expedited access to work permits. According to other reports, the migrants assembled to protest poor shelter conditions.
However, the Post reported that many of the migrants showed up because they heard rumors that they could receive work visas and green cards. The news outlet stated that an activist group allegedly told the migrants, who were mostly new arrivals from Guinea, to attend.
Amadou Sara Bah, 44, stated to the Post, “They told me that they would help me to get a work permit and a green card if I came here today.”
Sara Bah noted that he would not have traveled to city hall just to protest the hearing.
“There are many people here and we don’t know how to get the help they told us would be here,” he added. “I came here for a green card. I’m looking for help.”
Assitan Makadii with African Communities Together confirmed to the Post that many of the migrants “received some miscommunications” regarding green cards.
“They were told they would get money and green cards. It started how all rumors get started, on social media,” she noted.
Makadii told the Post that the migrants are “desperate” because “they don’t have a place to go.”
“They don’t have nothing and they deserve everything because they are human. We are all human,” Makadii continued. “As you can see I don’t think [the city housing is] happening because they’re all here because they don’t have a place to sleep.”
According to officials, one problem the city faces is that it does not have adequate language services for new arrivals. Nearly 3,000 different languages are spoken in Africa.
During the hearing, Manuel Castro, commissioner of Adams’ Office on Immigrant Affairs, stated, “This is mostly an issue that belongs to the federal government. They need to do better at providing training in these languages.”
“Early on in the situation with the arrival of asylum seekers, it was primarily Venezuelan, Ecuadorians and other Spanish-speaking asylum-seekers. But we started seeing more people from across the world arrive, so there’s a bit of an adjustment period that we’re undergoing,” Castro explained.
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