Despite migrants sleeping on the streets of New York City and stark warnings the state is out of shelter space, it remains the most requested destination for migrants who just crossed the border, according to charity workers in Texas.
Gotham, followed by Chicago and Miami, are the top destinations for migrants arriving at a Dallas migrant center, Pastor Isabel Marquez of Oak Lawn United Methodist Church told The Post.
“Nothing’s going to stop them,” Marquez said of migrants headed to the Big Apple.
“Their dream is to get there and everything they went through to get to the US. In their minds, it’s like, ‘If I already made it this far, I can take a little more.’”
The Methodist church has been working with migrants full-time since 2022, accepting migrants from overwhelmed border towns like Laredo and El Paso, both in Texas.
There are nearly 108,000 migrants and homeless people at 194 shelters across the Big Apple.
City officials say over 95,600 asylum seekers have come since last spring, 57,200 of whom currently live in taxpayer-funded shelters.
The church in Texas claims it does its best to warn border crossers about what’s happening on the ground in New York, telling them the situation is bleak.
“They’re coming with a dream and they’re not willing to let it go, even when they know [New York shelters] are saturated,” she said.
“It’s our job to tell them the reality, to know they might be sleeping where they hope they will.
Many of them tell us, ‘I still want to go. My family is over there. I can make it work, but I just need to get there.’”
“[Big] cities have a much larger shelter system that can sustain more people, although that was in the past,” the clergywoman stated.
“Now those shelters are overwhelmed and they don’t have space.”
Migrants who arrive at the Dallas church are mostly asylum-seekers who have sponsors — friends or relatives waiting to receive them in another US city and usually pay for their travel.
Church staff and volunteers help coordinate their travel from Dallas to other cities, as well as feed and clothe them.
“For the most part, we see migrants who are going to stay with a friend or family member who is waiting for them at their final destination, but when migrants don’t have a specific destination, they’re going to New York and Chicago — to the shelters there,” the pastor explained.
Among the new border arrivals Wednesday was Guo Lin.
The Chinese citizen had help booking his flight to JFK Airport, he told The Post through a translator.
“I’m going there to be with my friend,” the Fujian native stated.
Sometimes, a sponsor will back out at the last minute, Marquez revealed, leaving a migrant with no where to go once they arrive in their final destination.
From the house of worship in the Lone Star State, Marquez remains in contact with other non-profits and churches in the Big Apple.
Those organizations have relayed the crisis scenarios playing out in Manhattan, with migrants sleeping on the streets outside of the Roosevelt Hotel.
The hotel-turned-processing center has run out of space, forcing waves of migrants to camp out on the pavement.
Oak Lawn Methodist claims it’s been successful in securing a shelter bed for those who insist on going to New York City if they don’t have a place to stay.
But things don’t always work out.
“Sometimes they arrive there and they are still surprised but how bad things are in New York,” the pastor said.
“Once there, many are faced with reality. We stay in contact with some of them, and some have even left New York and come back.”
Marquez doesn’t know what the tipping point will be, either in New York or on the border, as her church continues to see hundreds of migrants come through every week.
But she wondered if new locations were becoming hot spots, as migrants are suddenly requesting to travel to a surprising destination.
“Iowa, for some reason, has been very popular lately,” she said. “It’s been surprising because we never had people going there before and now all the sudden people are going there.”
