美国国家公共电台 NPR--New York City says it has too many migrants and plans to send some elsewhere

New York City says it has too many migrants and plans to send some elsewhere

Transcript¹

Months after arriving in New York by bus, migrants without work permits struggle to carve out new lives as they wait for their asylum² cases to be heard.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

New York City is caring for some 50,000 migrants who arrived over the past year. Many asylum-seekers escaped violence and death threats at home. Having crossed the border, having reached New York, they can't get work permits and have no stable housing. The city now plans to move many of them to other cities, and the migrants are asking what that means for them. NPR's Jasmine Garsd spoke³ with some of them.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE⁴: Jose (ph) walks a lot. In fact, he spent the last six months or so walking. Jose is from Venezuela.

JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: It wasn't easy getting here, he says. At the U.S.-Mexico border, he told authorities he was in danger and needed asylum. He was bussed to New York, but officials here say they're at capacity.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ERIC ADAMS: Our right-to-shelter laws, our social services and our values are being exploited.

GARSD: That's New York City Mayor Eric Adams in October, around the time Texas stepped up, sending buses packed with migrants to New York and other sanctuary⁵ cities. Adams has said it will cost New York at least a billion dollars this fiscal⁶ year. But for Jose, going back home is not an option.

JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: Jose has asked that we withhold⁷ his last name because he fears for his family in Caracas. He was a truck driver there, which made him easy prey⁸ for gangs, who, he says, threatened to kill him. A few weeks ago, he was living at the Watson Hotel in Midtown Manhattan with other migrants.

JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: He says he needs a work permit so he can move out. He worries about being transferred to one of the shelters where there's been reported outbreaks of chicken pox and food poisoning. NPR reached out to New York City officials several times regarding these health concerns and received no response.

DESIREE JOY FRIAS: Chickenpox?

GARSD: Desiree Joy Frias is an organizer with South Bronx Mutual⁹ Aid. She recently went to Queens to deliver donations to migrant women and children.

FRIAS: I'm an attorney by trade. It's really disappointing to see the way that these people are just shoved into these hotels as permanent housing. It's not sustainable, and it's not healthy.

GARSD: Care of recently arrived migrants has fallen, largely, on everyday New Yorkers and mutual aids. Food, clothing, legal advice and health care is being addressed by nonprofits and concerned citizens. Today, Frias is checking out a rash on a baby's leg. The baby's mother, Alba Hernandez (ph), suspects it's from the milk they get, which she says is sometimes spoiled.

ALBA HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

FRIAS: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: Hernandez is from Colombia. She says her family was driven out by guerrillas.

HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: They've been in the U.S. for five months. Since she can't work, she can't pay an immigration lawyer. And what she's describing is the vicious cycle a lot of migrants say they feel trapped in without a job. New York City has just unveiled a blueprint¹⁰ to address the crisis. It includes working with other cities to relocate some of the migrants and workforce¹¹ training while asylum seekers await a work permit from the federal government. The plan has been met with skepticism. One concern - a work permit can only be requested six months after an asylum application has been submitted. Advocates say, immigration courts are so backed up, that can take over a year.

CAMILLE MACKLER: If they do everything right away and perfectly¹², probably a year, but more likely a year and a half to two years.

GARSD: That's Camille Mackler, executive director of the Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative. She says people are looking at as much as two years without a legal work permit.

MACKLER: It's a system that is forcing people to work in the shadow economy because that's the only way that they're going to have to survive.

GARSD: Many asylum seekers are already taking matters into their own hands. I met Luis (ph) outside the Watson. He's 21 and scared. He's asked that his last name be withheld¹³.

LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: His family got death threats for being in the opposition¹⁴ party back in Venezuela. Luis recently got a night job at a fast-food restaurant in the Bronx. His plan - stay at the shelter, pay an immigration lawyer - but then in late January, the migrants at the Watson were relocated to Red Hook, a harbor area in Brooklyn, to a large auditorium¹⁵ filled with cots.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: Protests erupted. People said it was freezing. Luis says he had this realization¹⁶.

LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "I like the U.S.," he says. "You just have to be psychologically prepared for it. Here, you're alone." With the money he'd saved for a lawyer, he rented a small room near the Bronx, which he shares with four other recently arrived Venezuelans. Jose, on the other hand, transferred to the new shelter at the harbor. He says he feels useless and frustrated¹⁷ that he can't send money back home to his family, who he says are hiding from gangs. He's stuck at the shelter.

JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "I just want to get out of here." So he does what he's been doing for nearly half a year. He walks. He describes New York to his family on WhatsApp. He admits he doesn't tell them how bad he feels. Instead, he just tells them...

JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "It's what you imagined since you were a kid, just like on TV. It's like a dream."

Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, New York City.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

6 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

7 withhold   

v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡

参考例句：

• It was unscrupulous of their lawyer to withhold evidence.他们的律师隐瞒证据是不道德的。
• I couldn't withhold giving some loose to my indignation.我忍不住要发泄一点我的愤怒。

8 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

9 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

10 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

11 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

12 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

13 withheld   

withhold过去式及过去分词

参考例句：

• I withheld payment until they had fulfilled the contract. 他们履行合同后，我才付款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There was no school play because the principal withheld his consent. 由于校长没同意，学校里没有举行比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

15 auditorium   

n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂

参考例句：

• The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
• The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出，伸入观众席。

16 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

17 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》