and then we ll know the perimeter because we ll know the sides. i m ending my day where it started at the port authority. i locked up the office, and i ll be receiving the evening buses and helping those families and young people get acclimated in new york and signed up for the services that they want and deserve. i think about my family coming to america, seeking a new life after the holocaust. i think about so many people from so many parts of the world who have come to call america home, it s a privilege to be part of their lives and think about the bravery that they have and the extraordinary resilience that they bring to everything that they do. project rousseau executive director andrew heinrich, thank you for coming in. can i ask you a personal question, how many hours a week do you work? thank you for having me, it s a pleasure to be here. a lot would be the right answer. i work 14 hour plus a day for sure. every time i see you on the video, you are smiling. these are dif
and that someone helped my family when they came here after the holocaust. someone probably helped your family too if you re listening. so doing whatever we can to help our neighbors, whomever they may be, migrants or otherwise is the core of what makes us all american. you seem to be optimistic at your core, but knowing what you know and seeing the numbers and seeing the need, are you optimistic that the help is going to be coming for not just your organization but all of the folks who are coming in and who are all across the united states right now looking for a better life the way your family did, the way my family did? i think, you know, what i can worry about as project rousseau s executive director is how we service young people as best we can and their families, and we still have capacity. we actually have some openings for asylum representation at this moment, and we are screening people actively every day. i screen people, my colleagues screen people, some amazing pro bono
essential supplies for folks so they can get their lives started in new york off on a good foot. my name is andrew heinrich and i m the founder and executive director of project rousseau. when i think of the things that people need right when they get off the bus in port authority, of course they need food and water, medical attention, access to immigration legal services, but also, and perhaps most importantly, they need dignity. have someone who just sees you as an equal for a few minutes and sits and chats with you one on one is really really important. you have what i think is a strong case for asylum. in our office today, we are providing some screenings for folks who are at the early stages of the immigration legal services process. i ask a variety of questions related to why they left their home country, why they fear returning to their country, to understand whether they might have a strong claim to asylum or
who have a credible and compelling claim, seeking work authorization is one of the first questions we get. there s a five-month clock between when you submit your application for asylum and when you can apply for work authorization. i know plenty of families we filed for and for whom i serve as their immigration attorney are counting down the days to that window. new york city is, and i think maybe the most welcoming city historically, right, give me your tired, your poor, in the united states, it is like other major cities there, seeing an influx of many of these migrants, generally liberal cities, right? and yet there are people who say we don t have the resources, we don t have the money. we don t have the tax dollars to handle what s happening right now. what would you say to them? i would say that the most important thing that all of us can do is do whatever we can to help those in need. project rousseau is doing what it can, i m doing what i can,
While local organizations are helping newly-arriving families with their asylum applications, more and more suburban counties are balking at New York City's attempts to relocate them.