During portions of interviews with NBC News aired on Monday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health at New York City Health + Hospitals Dr. Ted Long, who was also part of New York City’s Test & Treat Corps during the COVID pandemic, stated that caring for the surge of migrants in the city “has been the hardest work” he’s ever done, and Randye Retkin, Director of New York Legal Assistance’s LegalHealth division stated that the surge has filled up legal clinics and forced clinics to turn people away.
NBC News Homeland Security Correspondent Julia Ainsley began her report by stating that officials told NBC News that “over 200,000 illegal crossings at the southern border last month, and a record 3 million migrants crossed the border in the last year.”
She added, “Across public hospitals in New York City, a quarter of the patients are now migrants. Over the last year, nearly 30,000 visits by migrants and 300 new babies born to migrant moms.”
She then played a clip of Long stating, “This has been the hardest work that I’ve ever done, but it’s been the most impactful work that I’ve ever done.”
Ainsley then said, “And most of the visits to the taxpayer-funded legal clinic here are by migrants.”
She then played a clip of Retkin saying, “Our clinics are full and there are waiting lists and people are turning people away or referring them to other places.”
Ainsley then added, “Randye Retkin from New York’s Legal Assistance Group says so many migrants are asking for legal help on asylum representation and healthcare access, now she says American citizens who need legal assistance with issues like eviction and insurance have to wait up to ten weeks.”
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