Number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving in NYS rises 60% in four years: Record

The number of migrant children arriving in the Empire State unaccompanied by an adult is rising, with nearly 7,000 children now showing up unaccompanied in the Big Apple each year, according to records unsealed Tuesday.

Data shows the number of migrant youth seeking asylum in the city has increased by more than 60% over the past four years, experts told the City Council at a special hearing.

“Immigrant youth may be particularly at risk of becoming victims of immigration fraud perpetrated by bad-faith actors,” Tom Tortorici, executive director of legal and advocacy initiatives in the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, told city lawmakers.

“Especially if they lack a stable and trusted adult guardian to help them meet their immigration legal needs,” Tortorici said.

The presentation came at hearings of two council committees on immigration and children and youth.

An average of 4,153 young unaccompanied migrants arrived in New York state each year from 2015 to 2019, according to data from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, officials said.

From 2020 to 2024, this number will increase to an average of 6,684 per year.

According to the data, nearly 3,100 unaccompanied children were placed with sponsors between October 1, 2023, and July 31, 2024, in New York City alone.

And the number of migrant children left to fend for themselves could be even higher.

Jamie Pavlovich, a supervisor with the Coalition for the Homeless, testified, “We’ve also seen young people whose passports were falsified so they could flee.”

“But all of their other documents or certificates from their home country show that they are actually minors and then (the city administration for children’s services) doesn’t take them,” Pavlovich said. “There is also no consistency on what documents they are saying youth need.”