A Place of Refuge

Episode Transcript

Virginia Marshall Hey, Borrowed listeners – Virginia here. And with me in the printing room of Central Library is Heyrling Oropeza. Hi, Heyrling! 

Heyrling Oropeza Hi, and thank you for having me! 

Virginia Marshall Thanks so much for being here. So, you work at Central Library’s Info Commons as a librarian, and Info Commons for those who don’t know is an incredibly busy place. Whenever I walk by I see two or three patrons waiting to ask questions about computers or printing or filling out various applications … and I wanted to talk to you in particular because here at Borrowed we've been thinking for a while about how to tell a different kind of story about the library. Because over the past few months, we at the library have seen an increase in people coming to New York City seeking asylum, often from the Caribbean, Central and South America. 

Heyrling Oropeza Yeah, my coworkers and I noticed an increase in activity around mid-September. We noticed small groups of young men coming in, they would come in groups of three to seven individuals, and they would approach us for assistance. They were seeking aid in obtaining an ID card with the IDNYC office here at Central, and given my fluency in Spanish here, I would often go over the application with them, asking about the type of documents they needed in order to fulfill the four-point requirement.

Virginia Marshall So yeah, if listeners don't know, could you explain what an IDNYC card is?

Heyrling Oropeza Sure, an IDNYC card is a free, city-issued photo ID for New York City residents. It's a gateway to so many things in the city. It often gives you the ability to fill out health benefits, use it at jobs, open bank accounts and so much more. 

Virginia Marshall Gotcha. So, I wonder if you could tell us about some of the people you've helped in the past few months? You know, asylum seekers maybe looking to fill out an IDNYC application. 

Heyrling Oropeza Yeah. So, I was able to assist a family, a married couple and two brothers, who had little to no computer literacy skills. So they asked me if I could help them out. They didn't want to be denied, it was that big fear of doing the whole process all over again. So I go with them, explain to them the applications so that they give me their names, their addresses, the forms that I need to print and scan. So once we do that, we make the appointment as well for all four of them.

Virginia Marshall Oh my gosh. And this is all in Spanish, of course.

Heyrling Oropeza This is all in Spanish, correct. And then they also confided in me about the troubles they've been going through and experiencing at the shelter, seeing discrimination as well as some of their belongings had been taken by somebody who also lived there. So they didn't feel safe there and wanted to get on with their lives, asked me about job opportunities, they asked me about food and clothing ...

Virginia Marshall And, you know, they're coming to the library asking all of these different questions and -- you're an information librarian, right, so it's your job to connect them with all these different resources. So, I'm sure they're very grateful to walk in and have one person who they can actually communicate with, kind of show them around.

Heyrling Oropeza Yeah. So, I try. I try my best.

Virginia Marshall Yeah, I mean, we're really lucky to have you. And the other staff. Recently, I talked with Alison Pryor, and she's the New Americans Navigator at BPL. And she’s another staff member here who helps asylum seekers navigate services in New York City, as you're doing. So, here’s a little bit from Alison. 

Alison Pryor I connect people with free legal services that the library offers through ActionNYC, which is an initiative from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. 

Virginia Marshall And Alison told me that these days, she talks to about ten people a month who are looking for legal help with their asylum cases, which is up from about one or two per month before this fall. Because her conversations often take place in two languages, she ends up spending most of her day on the phone. 

Alison Pryor A lot of people just tell me that they hear about us from friends or just from the libraries themselves. They go to their local library and they have questions about immigration and they walk away with my phone number or email address. 

Heyrling Oropeza Yeah, it might seem surprising that asylum seekers are calling BPL and walking into Central looking for help, but the library is seen by many as the place to go for, and it's trusted, and we have updated information ... most of the time.

Virginia Marshall Yeah, exactly. And, we have branches in every neighborhood in the borough, so we can meet people where they are. In addition to connecting people to legal services, Alison, like you, she recommends food programs or ESOL classes based on where the caller is located. 

Alison Pryor For our immigrant patrons who are on the pathway to citizenship, we definitely take into account where do these communities live when we choose where the citizenship classes are. And for the special English classes that we've been offering that are drop in for asylum seekers, we've taken into account where people are living and we found out many people are living in shelters that might be pretty close to a library branch. So we've been trying to target those neighborhoods where people would be able to easily access those programs.

Heyrling Oropeza Over the past few months, Alison, myself, and a dozen others at BPL have been listening to what asylum seekers need and working with other city agencies and community-based organizations to respond to those needs. This is a constantly-changing crisis, and we’re just a small part of the city-wide response to the recent increase in New Yorkers seeking asylum. 

Virginia Marshall So, we’re going to dig into all of that in a two-part episode. So this first part, we’re focusing on library partnerships and city initiatives. I’m Virginia Marshall, audio producer at BPL. 

Heyrling Oropeza And I’m Heyrling Oropeza, librarian at BPL, and today, your co-host! You’re listening to Borrowed: stories that start at the library. 

[Theme music, fades into bustle of the Civic Commons]

Virginia Marshall If you walk into the Civic Commons on any given week day, you’ll see families waiting for appointments at our passport office, people on public computers, and individuals lining up for appointments with idNYC.  

Heyrling Oropeza The Civic Commons is a new part of Central Library on the Flatbush Avenue side of the building. It’s also where asylum seekers can set up free, private appointments to get legal help with the Immigrant Justice Corps and ActionNYC. 

Virginia Marshall The Civic Commons has become a kind of hub for asylum seekers. And, on a recent Friday morning, we met Manuel Castro, the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, or MOIA, in Central Library’s Civic Commons. He said that it felt good to be back at the library. 

Manuel Castro The library was always a refuge for myself. I was a migrant child myself. I came here when I was five. I crossed the border with my mother when I was a young kid. I grew up undocumented here in Brooklyn. And one of the places that I could find some comfort, I mean life was a bit chaotic ... I went to school near the main branch here at the Brooklyn Library, and so after school I would come here and I was just at peace.

[Music begins]

Virginia Marshall Commissioner Castro went to college and became part of the movement of undocumented young people who pushed for legal status. After graduation, he continued to advocate for immigrant rights, becoming executive director at New immigrant Community Empowerment, an organization in n Queens – before he was appointed Commissioner at MOIA.

Heyrling Oropeza There, he oversees city services for newly-arrived New Yorkers. It’s a big job because New York City is such an international place. He said that his work is often influenced by global immigration and migration patterns.  

Manuel Castro You know, whenever there's a situation, usually a crisis anywhere in the world, you see, you know, those impacted arrive in New York City. Because really it's been a destination for people who are seeking refuge, but also because they have existing family ties or community ties here. So, when the invasion of Ukraine happened, for instance, around this time last year, I knew that there was a large Ukrainian community here and that we would likely see family members come over. And certainly we started to see that influx. 

Virginia Marshall There are large communities of Ukrainian and Russian immigrants in Southern Brooklyn, in neighborhoods like Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach, so that’s been a big destination for recent Russian-Speaking Ukrainian refugees. There are people arriving in New York City seeking refuge and asylum from all over the world, every day. But this episode and our next episode will focus on asylum seekers from the Caribbean, and Central and South America who crossed the Mexican border into Texas – because their situation has put the city – and the library -- in a unique position. 

Heyrling Oropeza Right. Last spring, Governor Abbot of Texas announced he would be sending busses of people who crossed the US border to New York City. Many of those people were told they could either stay in detention or get on buses. Sometimes, they weren’t even told where they were going. I met people coming off the busses at Port Authority in recent months. I talked with them and gave them food and water. And let me tell you, being at that bus terminal to greet people was an eye opener, and it was a very emotional experience for me.  

Virginia Marshall Yeah, I can imagine. And in part two of this episode, we’ll hear from some of those asylum seekers and what they went through to get here. The Commissioner also at Port Authority, welcoming people who came on some of those first buses from Texas. And, we started the interview by asking him about that experience.  

Manuel Castro We saw a lot of families, a lot of children and often people who had not received any kind of support at the border. Often with medical conditions that were not addressed. And, they were overall confused. They thought and it made sense that they thought that this was all a coordinated effort, that the federal government infrastructure, that they had set up these buses to take them to New York City. One of the first people I met, for instance, was this this person who wanted to actually go to Portland, Oregon, and had gotten on this bus. And I'll never forget this. I was standing with him right outside the Greyhound bus. And he looks at me. He said, how far is Portland, Oregon from here? He's like, yeah, I have family, I have people that I can ask for support. I was like, I'm sorry, but that's like on the other side of the country. And I had to pull up Google Maps to show, you know, like ... and just his face was like, what? You know, like total confusion and a whole lot of feelings. To me, it was so unfortunate that we didn't have a system in place to support people who had been, who had gone through so much. 

Heyrling Oropeza I was part of just like, handing out food and drinks and just, kind of just being there for people ... I've experienced that but this was at another level. I remember, just like you said, the kids and the parents the moms asking ... just like disoriented, coming out of the bus. So yeah ...

Manuel Castro It's very emotional.

Heyrling Oropeza It is. It really is, as you can see.

Manuel Castro You know, there's something that moves you, like, to the core when you see this. Often in government, the first thing you think about is logistics, operations. Like, okay, how do we do this? How do we find beds? You know, it's challenging, especially when you're welcoming so many people. But if you care about just the humanity of people, you realize that gosh, just a simple embrace ... and just being there for people goes a long way. Our immigration system is so broken. How is it possible that people are now, you know, many thousands of people are under our care, they're not allowed to work legally in the country and likely won't be for months. Like, that just does not make sense. We need comprehensive immigration reform. We need to get it together, right, as a country. Because people are suffering as a result. And we shouldn't forget that, you know, we have a large undocumented population, many who have lived here for decades, who are New Yorkers, who are American, really ...  I grew up undocumented, I grew up as a DREAMer. And I didn't know anywhere else but New York City, but I was being told, you don't belong here. That just doesn't make sense.

Heyrling Oropeza So what is something -- what are ways that our listeners can help asylum seekers in their everyday lives? What can they do?

Manuel Castro Well, support your local library for sure. Because again, like me, when I was a child, I'm sure that many other asylum seekers will find refuge in their local libraries and their local community organizations. You know, we've welcomed over 50,000 asylum seekers -- and that's just of the people that, you know, we know of. I'm sure many tens of thousands more have arrived that are not on our radar because they didn't come to us for shelter. So, join a board, you know, join a fundraising effort for any of these local groups. And continue to show up for them. As we spoke earlier, showing up for them and making sure that they feel welcomed and embraced goes a long way. Because often they did not see that along their journey. And that is devastating for people. So we have to be there for them. Which is why ... often I get asked: Why do you keep going? And shaking people's hands and embracing them? And I'm like, I just can't stop because it's just like ... we need to face this. 

Virginia Marshall That was part of our interview with Manuel Castro, the Commissioner at the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. MOIA, along with NYC Human Resources Administration, partners with the library to support the New Americans Navigator position, which is Alison’s title. MOIA and HRA also co-ordinate IDNYC services at the library and the volunteer-based English conversation groups called We Speak NYC. 

Heyrling Oropeza MOIA also set up navigation centers across the city last fall, which are places asylum seekers can go to get information about legal services, food programs, housing, and information about New York City schools. We’ll put information about all of those programs on our episode web page. 

Virginia Marshall And, the library partners with other non-profits and organizations to serve asylum seekers. Just last month, BPL partnered with KIND, which stands for Kids in Need of Defense. KIND is an organization that works with children who cross the border. 

Rosalyn Valdez So we are currently working with unaccompanied minors who are crossing without guardians. They are under the age of 18, sometimes even babies of five months old.  

Heyrling Oropeza This is Rosalyn Valdez, a paralegal with KIND. She was at Central in March to help run a program introducing some of the young people they represented to resources at the library.

Rosalyn Valdez They need support from adults. They need food, clothing, housing, um, anything you can think of.

Virginia Marshall There were a lot of teens at this particular event, so a speaker gave a presentation in Spanish about financial literacy. And this event with KIND is just one of several initiatives we’re hoping to offer to new Brooklynites. In one of our recent asylum and refugee response meetings here at BPL, we discussed bringing BPL’s TechMobile to shelters in Brooklyn where asylum seekers are being temporarily housed so they can use computers and get library cards. And we also talked about offering more job information resources in multiple languages. And a reminder that we do have a lot of job and career resources and training through our Business and Career Center. If you need legal help with immigration or want to learn more about programs you can take advantage of, you can call 718.230.2007 or email immigrantservices [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org -- you’ll talk to Alison, who you heard at the beginning of this episode. 

Heyrling Oropeza And if you’re looking for English classes at the library, we have classes at many levels. Information about that is on our website, or feel free to call 201.899.4914 to learn more. 

Virginia Marshall We’ll put information to all of these resources on our episode web page, which you can find at BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] podcasts. And there, you can also find a transcript of this episode. A reminder that BPL’s entire website can be translated into 21 different languages. So, if you want to send a transcript of this episode to someone who speaks a language other than English, you can do that. 

Heyrling Oropeza Borrowed is brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library. This episode was produced by Virginia Marshall, and written and hosted by me and Virginia. 

Virginia Marshall Our Borrowed advisory team is Fritzi Bodenheimer, Robin Lester Kenton, and Damaris Olivo. Jennifer Proffitt and Ashley Gill run our social media. Our music composer is Billy Libby. Meryl Friedman designed our logo. 

Heyrling Oropeza And on our next episode, we’ll hear from asylum seekers themselves, and our visit the Good Shepherd Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn – where community organizers have been mobilizing to support new migrants for the past three years.  

Virginia Marshall In the meantime, why not support a community-based organization? We’ve got links to a few of them on our episode web page. 

Heyrling Oropeza Thanks for listening, and take care.