Immigrants seeking asylum in New York City struggle to get help meeting basic needs. Nonprofit organizations struggle to fill the vacuum.

Inside a narrow storefront nestled between an immigrant law firm and a 99-cent store, African migrants clad in merchandise from various U.S. sports teams crowd the help desk. 

They wait for directions from Ramata Sakho, a 47-year-old nurse and lead volunteer at the Association des Sénégalais d’Amérique (ASA), a nonprofit in Harlem helping African immigrants in New York City. 

Sakho simultaneously answered phone calls in the West African language Wolof, spoke to colleagues in French and addressed reporters in English. “We do it all,” Sakho said, from legal aid and IDNYC applications (a free government-issued photo identification card for all New York City residents) to funeral arrangements and family counseling services. 

ASA is one of a handful of community-centered organizations helping African migrants navigate the asylum process amid a 300% increase in Africans arriving in the United States via the Mexican border. 

Funding from the city government hasn’t kept up with the increased demand for immigrant services from the African community, Sakho said. The city won’t distribute grants to organizations like ASA that aren’t tied to larger nonprofits.

Nonprofits fill a vacuum.

Across the region, community-based organizations geared towards assisting marginalized immigrant groups are facing similar problems. Although these small-scale operations facilitate all facets of the integration process, often stepping in to cover the city’s oversight, they do so without recognition and with little to no government aid or state involvement. 

Ryan Clough, an immigration lawyer at Central American Legal Assistance (CALA), a low-cost legal firm supporting Latino immigrants seeking asylum in New York City, said that private grants and donations are important at a time when the city’s support is dwindling. 

Although Clough notes that CALA is fortunate enough to receive some city grants, he accredits that, in large part, to a single councilman who’s helped promote removal defense work in recent years. 

Unlike the immigration branch of ASA and other hyper-localized organizations, CALA benefits from the support of powerful city officials and wealthy donors. 

Still, CALA is experiencing the same spike in demand as every other nonprofit organization in New York City following the roughly 200,000 new migrants arriving from primarily Central and South America in the past two years. 

“I think every nonprofit is making do with what they have,” Clough said.“The city just doesn’t have enough money for the demand.”

A need for housing, food and legal services

Vic Lee, co-founder of Welcome to Chinatown, a nonprofit organization helping the Chinese immigrant population in New York City, notes that underfunding marginalized communities is not a recent trend. 

“Every time there is a historical disaster, Chinatown remains significantly under-funded and under-resourced,” Lee said, citing a post-9/11 impact study conducted by her organization. 

According to a report by the Asian American Association, Chinatown is essential for working-class immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurs. Yet, limited economic development and city support jeopardize this gateway for future generations of immigrants. To combat this threat, Welcome to Chinatown started a fund to support immigrant-owned small businesses in Chinatown.

Likewise, Neighbors for Refugees (NFR), a nonprofit that has worked to find housing and resettle 85 refugee families since 2016, recently expanded its services to provide direct financing to immigrants. The Road to Independence Grant gives an average of $500 to each eligible immigrant to help cover various expenses, including food insecurity, unexpected legal costs, job expenses and basic household needs. 

“We’ve set up an additional fund for filling in areas that the city or state doesn’t necessarily provide,” said Rick Berry, vice president and director of NFR. The organization’s president, Michael J. Reichgott, adds that among many successes, the fund recently paid for an immigrant’s chauffeur license training to help him become a long-distance driver and find stable employment. 

Spreading the word that help is here

Even nonprofit newsrooms are lending their hand to engage these communities, recognizing the problems associated with the city’s oversight. 

Fisayo Okare, a reporter at Documented, says that the organization has built a sidebar of resources, ranging from legal advice to food pantry locations, to combat the gaps in the city’s support system for refugees and asylum seekers. 

Although Documented’s primary focus is reporting with immigrant communities, Okare said with a laugh that there are sometimes “more views on the immigrant resource page than on the actual news stories.”

Despite years or even decades of systemic underfunding, these local nonprofits continue to step in and serve the communities that need them most, even as their resources can’t meet a demand that’s hitting an all-time high. 

“This is my passion,” Sakho said while nodding to the bustling room filled with migrants, friends, and volunteers. 

Three questions to consider:

1. Why are nonprofits that help immigrants in New York City struggling?
2. What are some of the challenges immigrants in the United States face?
3. What kind of assistance do you think a city should provide to people who seek asylum from the countries they fled?

Samantha Crystal is in the second year of high school at The Hewitt School in New York City. She has a particular interest in criminal justice and entrepreneurship. She enjoys spending her free time cooking for her family and friends. At Hewitt, Samantha is the founder and head of the Innocence Project club, co-head of the business club and an active member of the debate team.