A New York mother said the city and state’s response to the influx of illegal immigrants since 2022 has directly hurt low-income families of legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Danyela Souza Egorov is the vice president of the Community Education Council for New York City School District 2, the city government’s education advisory body that reviews educational programs and holds public hearings with parents. She testified to Congress on Thursday that school staff members and parents are furious with the city for how it has taken from poor families to offer a plethora of free services to people who came to the country illegally.
“New Yorkers today feel abandoned by our mayor or governor, our city comptroller, and by the city council,” Egorov, an elected school governance official, testified before the House Judiciary Committee. “None of them are focused on the interests of New Yorkers and of taxpayers. That is why I’m here asking Congress to look at this situation before New York City’s completely bankrupt — before more low-income New Yorkers lose even more services and our greatest American city cannot come back.”
The testimony came before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the impact illegal immigration has on the social safety net.
Egorov said she legally immigrated to the United States from Brazil and married a Ukrainian man whose grandparents went through a four-month refugee screening process to be admitted to the United States after their home was ravaged early in the Russian invasion.
She lives in Manhattan with her husband and family, in a part of the borough that has been disproportionately affected by the 161,000 immigrants who were released by the federal government into the country after crossing the border illegally and later sought assistance in NYC.
“In my district, we have a lot of the hotel rooms that are being used for shelter,” Egorov said as she explained why thousands of new students have shown up at nearby schools since September.
“Principals are very concerned because they never know when they’re going to get new students, and I am the founding board chair of a charter school in Brooklyn that was specifically designed for students who don’t speak English,” she said. “I know how much it takes to teach children who don’t speak English at home. Like my kids to learn English — it’s very specifically designed where you need qualified teachers, and even if we have the resources, there are just not enough [English Second Language] qualified teachers in our city to be hired.”
Parents have also been outraged by the “double standards” that the city has put forth on health protocols. Amid the influx of immigrant children from the southern border, the city changed its vaccine requirements, a move that flew in the face of residents who refused to have their children immunized during the coronavirus pandemic and were banned from attending school.
“My family, we have been through many, many processes of getting a visa and getting a student visa, work visa,” Egorov said. “We had to provide extensive documentation to be able to get the visa, so I think legal immigrants like myself look at this process and ask why there is this double standard.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sympathized with Egorov’s frustrations.
“You did it the right way and yet your kids, who need the services in the school, are being denied that because of folks who aren’t doing it in the legal and proper way,” Jordan said.
Manhattan is the center of the illegal immigration crisis in the Big Apple. The city has recorded 161,000 immigrants seeking assistance from the local government between August 2022 and December 2023.
The cost has been significant, not just for taxpayers but particularly for schools.
The minority leader of the New York City Council, Republican Joseph Borelli of Staten Island, told Congress in September 2023 that the city will spend $6.1 billion to house immigrants in fiscal 2024, which began in July 2023 and will end in June.
The city has taken dramatic measures to shave off as much spending as possible — all hitting legal residents with a loss of services.
“Our libraries are not opening on Sundays anymore,” Egorov said. “The Fire Department of New York has to reduce its headcount by more than 50 people. District 75, which serves students with severe disabilities and the most vulnerable population in our schools will have to cut $1 million per school.”
The safety of students in school is also a top concern among parents, Egorov said. Last October, Mayor Eric Adams canceled classes for 250 incoming NYC school safety agents and asked parents to volunteer to patrol schools.
“This is the No. 1 thing that I hear from parents in our community — they want more school safety agents in their buildings,” Egorov said. “[Adams] said that our parents will have to volunteer, which we’re not qualified to be school safety agents.”
Egorov said she sees no end in sight to the problem.
“If migrants are receiving letters with an appointment, an appointment in immigration court to process their asylum in 10 years, in 2033, will New York taxpayers pay for hotel rooms and shelters over the next decade?” she asked. “We will have to incur $5 billion in expenses every year. How many more services will low-income New York citizens have to lose to finance this policy?”
