Illegals Comprise 10% of 'Several' NY High Schools as State Braces for Thousands More

New York officials are expecting to receive at least another 7,000 illegal immigrant children who have been detained in the next months.

The New York Immigration Coalition, along with New York City officials, announced on Wednesday that the state has already received nearly 3,300 illegal immigrant children and illegal immigrants make up 10 percent of some NYC International High Schools. 

Nish Agarwal, the Immigrant Affairs Commissioner for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, said the “administration is committed to do everything we can to embrace Central American migrant children who are placed in New York City.” Representatives from Catholic Charities New York and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) also said they would be ready for the influx. 

Steven Choi, the Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said residents had a “moral duty to help these children, who have faced harrowing and traumatic journeys over thousands of miles to flee violence, rape and death.” He said the group’s nearly 200 “member agencies have already seen large numbers of migrant children — many of whom have legitimate claims to legal remedies such as asylum and refugee status — in upstate, Long Island, and New York City.” 

Claire Sylvan, the Executive Director of Internationals Network of Public Schools, said illegal immigrants now “now make up 10 percent of the student population in several NYC International High Schools” and emphasized that those schools must be given more resources to deal with the “complex needs” of the illegal aliens.

Nearly 60,000 illegal immigrant minors have been apprehended since October of last year, and federal officials expect at least 150,000 more will be in the next fiscal year.