“I will not demonize immigrants!” said U.S. President Joe Biden as part of his March 8th State of the Union speech during which he addressed the global migrant crisis, exacerbated by both the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East. Biden made immigration one of the central issues of his now abandoned presidential re-election campaign, as had his opponent, Republican nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump.

 

Now that Biden has dropped out of the race and has endorsed fellow Democrat and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency, it remains to be seen how the Harris campaign will tackle this seemingly no-win political assignment. Norwood News spoke to Bronx voters to obtain their views on the matter.

 

During an influx of unaccompanied migrant children along the southern border in June 2021, Biden tasked his vice president with overseeing diplomatic efforts in Central America to discourage illegal border crossings, CNN reported. On a trip to Guatemala that year, as reported by the BCC, she famously delivered the message on behalf of the U.S., both for the safety of those attempting to travel and in efforts to ease the management of the border crisis, “Do not come. Do not come.”

 

CNN recently reported that Harris and her campaign team have since sought to make one thing clear: she was never charged with managing the southern border. Her team said while Harris focused on long-term fixes, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security remained responsible for overseeing border security. Nonetheless, Republicans are sure to use immigration as form of attack now that she has joined the presidential race.

 

Meanwhile, during a speech in April, in Grand Rapids, Michigan about the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump, who, as reported, recently survived an assassination attempt, used the term “animals” to describe migrants who were illegally crossing the border, after first referencing a nursing student from Georgia who was reportedly killed by an undocumented person.

 

“They’re not humans, they’re animals, and that’s what they are,” he said. Trump has long opposed the latest rise in undocumented immigration to the U.S., which he blames Democrats for, and which has resulted in immigrants who have crossed the southern border illegally being sometimes bused to so-called “sanctuary cities” across the U.S., including to New York. “They’re sending prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, mental patients and terrorists, the worst they have in every country, all over the world,” Trump alleged, later adding, “They’re wrecking our country.”

 

However, crossing the U.S. border and applying for asylum is a legal way to enter the country for people fleeing dangerous situations in their own home countries, according to a January report from the NYC Comptroller’s Office. The report also busts many other ill-conceived myths about immigrants. For example, it explains how immigrants benefit the economy, irrespective of their status. The report can be read in full here.

 

In October 2023, NY1 reported that New York City Mayor Eric Adams placed a stay-limit on all New York City shelters of 60 days to deal with shelter overcrowding. The move came after other states began moving migrants to New York. The mayor’s office released a statement at the time which read, “It is the mayor’s latest attempt to provide relief to the city’s shelter system and finances, as it grapples with more than 120,000 migrants who have come to New York.”

The rule meant that once undocumented migrants got their 30-day notice from their assigned caseworker, they were later transferred to the next available shelter with space. Since early 2024, some displaced migrants were forced to sleep upright on the streets in chairs, on sidewalks, or in local train stations, while they waited for placement at a different shelter. Some were ticketed by the NYPD.

 

NY1 reported in August 2023 that according to the mayor’s office, 93,000 migrants were processed at that stage, with hundreds more arriving daily. Meanwhile, according to an Asylum Seeker Spending Report released by the Office of the State Comptroller, the State spent more than $713 million in emergency spending through March 31 this year on people seeking asylum in the United States.

 

The Bronx Times reported on Oct. 6, 2023, that the 56-room Royal Hotel, located at 3362 Boston Road by East Gun Hill Road in Williamsbridge, was converted into an emergency migrant shelter for migrant families. The general manager of the hotel, who declined to give his name when he later spoke to Norwood News, said, “The hotel is still being used as a shelter and they [migrants] have to check in and out. [There] are no problems.”

 

However, some Norwood residents and workers we spoke to in recent months were divided on the growing migrant population, as well as on who they intend to vote for in the presidential election this fall. “As of right now, I really don’t know if I even want to vote,” said Daniella, a customer service representative at a business located on East Gun Hill Road in Norwood, who declined to give her surname.

 

“I am not sure yet, but I am not going to vote for Trump or Biden,” she said. “We had no negative issues with the migrants. A lot of our communities, especially in The Bronx, are migrants, and all of my friends are children of migrants, and migrants themselves,” she added.

 

Daniella continued, “I don’t agree with a lot of stuff Trump has said [about undocumented migrants] and he is against the migrants, placing a ban against migration [from] Muslim countries.” she said. “As for Biden, on the issue with Palestine, I don’t like the way he is approaching it. It feels wrong for me to vote for someone who [..] bans these people from coming in.”

 

The so-called Muslim Ban, established under the Trump administration in January 2017, is an executive order which banned immigrants from traveling to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. Many were people fleeing violence, hoping to reunite with their families, or access medical treatment. The Trump administration said at the time that the list was based, to a degree, on a similar list compiled during the Obama administration.

 

Daniella was not the only voter who expressed disillusionment with then-presidential candidates, Biden and Trump, on the issue of migration, nor the only undecided voter. “The migrants in New York [are] a security concern,” said Mohammed Iqbal Hussain, general secretary for the North Bronx Islamic Center, located on East 206th Street in Norwood.

Iqbal Hussain has lived on Hull Avenue since 1997 and expressed frustration over a criminal drug and arms bust and arrests which took place in early April at 3259 Hull Avenue in Norwood, where, as reported, it was found there were migrants squatting in the basement. It is unknown if they were documented or undocumented migrants, but they were found to be squatting there and some were also charged with child endangerment. “So many problems with the migrants! I feel very antsy now,” Iqbal Hussain said.

 

He continued, “It’s not right and too many of them are walking around here squatting in houses, and at night you can’t even go to work. There are a lot of people renting rooms and places in their houses to these people with no paperwork. [They] are out all hours in the night hanging out on the streets. They have a right to stay, and they are human, but supposedly are destroying the community, and no one is talking about it.”

 

On February 28, as also reported, dozens of West African migrants were also found to be living in unsafe conditions at a shelter being run illegally at 305 East Kingsbridge Road in Fordham Manor, before they were evacuated and assisted by NYC Department of Emergency Management. More migrants were allegedly also living in the abandoned Old Fordham Library building located at 2556 Bainbridge Avenue in Fordham Manor, which was also allegedly being run as an illegal shelter by the same man who ran the shelter on East Kingsbridge Road as well as a third shelter in Queens.

 

On his feelings around voting in November, Hussain said, “I don’t vote for Donald Trump or Biden, because they are using municipal money toward the migrants, and they are terrorizing the community.”

 

Meanwhile, James Bishop, director of support services at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in Norwood, said, “We always had migrants, but they weren’t what they are now with the asylum, and have a huge influx of them. Of course, our afterschool programs and our crisis and prevention programs have been affected.”

 

Bishop explained how the community center has had an increase in both individual migrants and migrant families seeking “clothing, sponsors for work,” and “help with food insecurities because the shelters don’t let them cook, and they have very limited meal options.”

 

Referring to the 60-day shelter rule for migrants, Bishop continued, “The older kids usually drop out because they are out on the streets trying to make ends meet. It is very hard to work with them because they will be moved to different shelters.”

Meanwhile, Bronx native Nora Adams, a medical student and member of New York City Healthcare Workers for Palestine, said, “I plan to vote but will not be voting for Joe Biden.” Adams and other medical students attended the Bronx Rally for Gaza on Friday, May 3, at One Fordham Plaza on the Fordham Manor/Belmont border.

 

“The purpose of the rally was to draw connections between oppression in The Bronx and oppression in Gaza,” Adams said. “Biden is part of the same system that is supporting genocide and part of the overall capitalist system of the Unites States. I will vote down the ballot, but neither presidential candidate supports or represents me.”

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.

 

Editor’s Note: Though U.S. President Joe Biden has received criticism for his approach in relation to Gaza, the U.S. Congress ultimately voted to fund U.S. military support in both Ukraine and Israel.

All interviews were carried out before the president dropped out of the upcoming presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.