A lack of clear guidance for migrant teens who arrive in New York City without family is sparking confusion, fear and erratic responses from city officials — including an email exchange suggesting they share information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It’s been a year since tens of thousands of migrants from the southern U.S. border began arriving in the region, with city officials saying in February that fewer than 10 unaccompanied minors under federal supervision had arrived in New York City without parents or guardians. But volunteers who meet recently arrived migrants at the Port Authority Bus Terminal say they have encountered several hundred teens traveling solo since last July, some as young as 14.
Power Malu, an aid worker who’s been meeting immigrants at bus stations and airports, says his group Artists Athletes Activists taps into a network of volunteers who have been housing teens in their apartments in lieu of a coordinated response from the city.
“We can’t have them on the street, but there’s really no other solution for them by way of the government,” said Malu, the group’s executive director.
The lack of guidance has left the city with limited information about how many children and young adults are looking for shelter, with outreach workers and nonprofit providers scrambling to find them care.
Many teens who arrived alone have not come into contact with immigration authorities, following treacherous routes across the border, often coming in on Greyhound buses without documentation, Malu said.
It’s unclear how many unaccompanied minors are currently in New York City. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams did not respond to questions asking if City Hall has estimates of teen migrants who arrived recently.
The lack of a clear plan or coordination comes as resources for homeless youth dwindle. Last fall, there wasn’t enough room in the city’s youth shelter system to house arriving migrants, City Limits reported, and city officials abruptly banned homeless youth from “resting” overnight at youth drop-in centers. Susan Haskell, deputy commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development, defended the decision at a Council hearing on Monday, despite concerns that it has forced teens to sleep in subway stations instead.
At a City Council hearing late last year, Haskell encouraged advocacy groups and lawmakers to call her if they encounter young asylum-seekers. The statement showcased the ad hoc approach, said Jamie Powlovich, executive director of the Coalition for Homeless Youth, which represents shelter providers.
Powlovich said she called Haskell, who did not answer, after a mutual aid group informed her of two teens arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in early January. Powlovich followed up by emailing her and other administrators from DYCD, which is tasked with providing services, shelter and housing to young people ages 16 to 24.
In the Jan. 9 email shared with Gothamist by a legal service provider, Tracey Thorne, DYCD's runaway and homeless youth services director, asked Powlovich for detailed information about the 16 and 17-year-olds on behalf of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services and ICE.
“We are working with ACS to get some clarity on the process for unaccompanied minors arriving via bus. They are in touch with ICE who is asking for the following,” Thorne wrote, listing seven pieces of identifying information including name, date of birth and “alien number,” a number assigned to noncitizens by the Department of Homeland Security.
Powlovich declined to provide those details to the department.
“I am not comfortable sharing information that will be shared with ICE until I talk with the lawyer that is assisting,” she wrote in response. “Since this is not my area of expertise, I do not want to do anything that could cause them harm.”
Gothamist requested communication between DYCD, ACS and ICE under the Freedom of Information Law, but the agencies have delayed the responses until at least late May.
“Neither ACS nor DYCD shared any information about any youth/child with ICE, nor do they have any intention of doing so in the future,” said Amaris Cockfield, a spokesperson for City Hall.
She said the agencies were trying to figure out how to make a referral to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which monitors and provides services for minors arriving in the U.S.
New York City has one of the strongest sanctuary laws in the country, protecting undocumented immigrants from deportation or prosecution regardless of federal immigration law.
Powlovich confirmed the emails and said they show a lack of clarity on how to deal with unaccompanied minors that could threaten their ability to stay in the U.S.
She said her organization has been requesting clarification from the city about procedures for serving migrant youth since late August.
“To date, the city has not adequately responded,” she said. “The city’s demonstrated inability to coordinate services and support for these young people is concerning and causing additional harm.”
The Coalition for Homeless Youth spelled out several concerns in a January letter to DYCD, questioning why the department is not working with Health + Hospitals to connect with young people in the city’s barracks-style migrant shelters. The group also asked for clear guidelines on how they are working with the Administration for Children’s Services and sharing information with federal agencies. They have not received a response.
Last year, the number of unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. hit a record high of 130,000 – triple what it was five years ago. The federal government lost contact with a third of the children, according to a New York Times investigation, leaving many in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws.
Malu said there is an unknown number of teens who are afraid to approach city agencies or grassroots groups after arriving in New York City, especially when law enforcement officers are stationed nearby. Some have found work across the five boroughs in exchange for a place to sleep.
“They end up getting exploited,” Malu said. “Their work is what they pay for room and board.”
But there are also teens who cross the border with family members and end up alone shortly afterward. Malu said his group finds some asleep in the street or at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, in some cases abandoned by parents who struggle with addiction. In other cases, older siblings or adult relatives leave teens here after accompanying them across the border when they can’t find work and return home.
Malu said he has worked to reunite 40-50 teens who were separated from their extended families after documents specifying their legal guardians were not accepted or needed translation. They were sent from New York City to federal refugee facilities as far as Florida and Arizona, he said.
Kate Barnhart runs a drop-in center for LGBTQ+ young people called New Alternatives near Port Authority. She said a few minors have arrived at her facility, which does not contract with DYCD.
She referred them to other drop-in centers or the Ali Forney Center, which provides services for homeless LGBTQ young people but said she has not received guidance from the city.
“When we’ve called around trying to get some info, it’s just passed around,” Barnhart said. Other providers “aren’t getting any information either.”
Barnhart said most DYCD shelters are full, and the city’s response has been “completely inadequate.”
“We’re being told a fair amount of the time to refer folks to DYCD facilities but the DYCD shelters are full,” Barnhart said.
Alex Roque, head of the Ali Forney Center, said other nonprofits and mutual aid groups across the city are directing people to his agency, though they may not qualify.
“We’ve been experiencing a big influx of organizations that aren’t familiar with us sending us clients,” Roque said.
And Stacy Stewart, head of the runaway and homeless youth program at The Door, said finding an available bed can take several days.
Sheltering Arms, a nonprofit serving more than 17,000 children, also shut down in February, a year after the city cut contracts with the youth shelter provider Core Services in the wake of a financial scandal.
“No one is really stepping up saying that they have a solution,” said Malu. “We have to be able to avoid the politics and bureaucracy and just try to help [the youth] because otherwise they’ll end up in a detention center.”
This story has been updated to remove a duplicated paragraph.
