NYC hearing on Black migrant experience draws hundreds to City Hall

NEW YORK - Hundreds, if not thousands, of migrants in New York City rallied outside of City Hall on Tuesday ahead of a City Council oversight hearing focused on the experience of Black migrants.

The City Council's Committee on Immigration and the Committee on Hospitals held a joint hearing to discuss the disparities many Black migrants are reporting during the city's surge of asylum seekers.

Many attendees at the rally said they were asking for equality.

As FOX 5 NY's Stephanie Bertini has reported in Migrants in America, Black migrants in the city have reported that cultural differences, language barriers and racism are just some of the issues they're facing as they try to make their way in a new country.

"Over the past two years, Black immigrants have faced especially stark barriers in accessing city resources," said City Councilmember Alexa Avilés, who serves as chair of the Committee on Immigration, which organized Tuesday's hearing.

One of the issues discussed at the hearing was limits on shelter stays, claiming the 30-day limits for singles disproportionately affected Black migrants.

"Migrants from Africa are disproportionately single adults and adult families. Around 81% of migrants from African countries currently in our care are single adults/adult families compared to the overall average of 22% for the entire system," the city said in response.

Many Black migrants are from countries including Senegal, Mauritania and Haiti and speak only French, for example, or their native language, and that makes navigating the system even more difficult.

Watch the hearing below: