If it weren’t for the soldiers at the door, you’d pass by without noticing the people behind the window.
Just off Manhattan’s Madison Avenue, among the skyscrapers of midtown, a shuttered bar is now the impromptu overflow for New York’s central migrant registration centre. And through the fogged windows, a room full of stories.
Each person has made a long journey from Africa, the Middle East and South America to the southern border of the United States and now here.
Some are fleeing persecution, others war. Some have had their lives upended by climate change. All need work. All seeking a better life.
“Things weren’t going well for us in Venezuela,” says Danieles, a mother of two. “Especially for them.” She points at her toddlers.
Nearby, Omar, wet, with no belongings and no bed for the night, says: “We’re looking for a way to have a future, a good economy, to try to help us and our families back in Venezuela to live.”
Fear and hope; the push and pull of humanity. These are familiar stories I’ve heard on the migration trail, from Lebanon to Turkey, from Greece to France, from Texas to New York.
The Big Apple is proudly a city of immigrants. Almost 40% of the people here were born in another country. And its Statue of Liberty is a symbol of a nation built on immigration, but now New York is testing a nation divided by migration.
It’s not entirely clear why Britain’s home secretary has chosen America to launch – some would say grandstand – her proposals to tackle global migration.
If Suella Braverman thinks America is a showcase for migration, she will be bitterly disappointed.
If she wants to use it as an example of a failing system, it’s a diplomatically awkward message, and she’ll find a government that would rather not talk about it.
As in Britain and Europe, migration is a bitterly divisive issue here.
America’s southern border is a perfect example of an asylum system that is neither firm nor fair. In this, it will find common ground with Britain’s own system.
New York is a snapshot of a nationwide challenge. More than 100,000 people arrived on the island of Manhattan last year.
City officials recently signed a $275m deal with the Hotel Association of New York to provide 5,000 rooms for migrants. But more arrive every week.
More than 60,000 people are currently being housed in 200 different sites across the city.
Most arrive at the southern border with Mexico after travelling through Central America. In August, 82,000 people entered Panama by land from South America.
This year’s numbers are expected to double by 2022.
As they cross into the Americas to claim asylum, they immediately become political pawns, most pushed north to be someone else’s problem. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s happening in Europe too, from Italy to France to the UK.
To get a sense of America’s broken system, consider this: more than two million immigration cases are pending nationwide. That is up from about 100,000 a decade ago, and the average time to decide a case is now four years.
This month, the city’s mayor gave a stark assessment of the challenge.
“We are not getting any support in this national crisis. We’re not getting any support,” said Eric Adams.
“And let me tell you something, New Yorkers: never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an end to. I don’t see an end to this. I don’t see an end to this. This problem is going to destroy New York City, destroy New York City.
Mr Adams is a Democrat, the party of President Biden, with whom he is now clashing over migration.
Mr Adams blames the President. Mr Biden, on the occasions when he acknowledges the problem, blames it on a system he can’t change without bipartisan agreement, which he will never get.
And that’s the crux of the matter. Whether it’s the villages of Kent, the islands of Greece, the towns of Texas or the streets of Manhattan, there is no common ground on migration. Politicians represent divided societies. It’s “we can do it” versus “we really can’t”.
Between the hard line and the compassion is a reality. This is a time of unprecedented migration. The movement we are seeing represents a new normal that is testing open societies around the world.
