Miami’s latest migrant surge meets a tough housing market, strained local services
Migrants have been coming to the United States, either through the U.S.-Mexico border or on boats arriving in South Florida, in large numbers over the past year. In some cases, the numbers are some of the highest ever: Close to 240,000 Cubans arrived last year, as well as significant numbers of Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.
Many of the migrants arriving at the southern border who have been allowed to come into the U.S. under any of several immigration protocols have made their way to South Florida, a natural destination for many refugees from Latin America and Haiti because of the area’s large Hispanic and Haitian population, though specific numbers are hard to come by.
The influx over the past two years has Miami-Dade County grappling with what Mayor Daniella Levine Cava described as a “crisis” in a 2022 letter to the Biden administration. Her administration is asking Washington for assistance in helping the county and nonprofits provide services for migrants.
Some of the needs for newly arrived migrants include housing, legal aid and employment assistance. The impact of the influx has been seen at schools, while it is less clear for healthcare.
Here’s a closer look:
Healthcare and medical services
It’s difficult to gauge whether newly arrived migrants are getting access to the healthcare they need, or if they’re slipping through the cracks.
South Florida public hospitals Jackson Health System in Miami-Dade and Memorial Regional in Broward provide care to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. They offer a variety of services for underserved and underinsured populations. They don’t ask patients about their immigration status so it’s not known whether they’ve seen an increase of migrants seeking care.
Community Health of South Florida, a nonprofit health center that has clinics in Florida City, Homestead and other parts of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, has a specialized program that focuses on reducing barriers to care for migrants and seasonal farmworkers, a population that is often underserved and underinsured.
But lately, the nonprofit health center has seen a decrease in its migrant seasonal population, anecdotally speaking, according to Eunice Hines, CHI’s director for migrant health services and outreach.
“And that’s because there really are no jobs,” said Hines. “Land that they used to work down here for in the South Dade area — Florida City, Everglades area, Homestead — these lands are being bought for development, so a lot of these individuals are traveling out of the state or up north to be able to take care of their families.”
CHI also doesn’t ask patients about their immigration status. Instead, it relies on a team of outreach coordinators that go into areas of the communities where migrant and seasonal farmworkers live and work to determine what the health needs are.
The health centers provide a variety of services, including primary care, behavioral health, pediatrics, dental and obstetrics-gynecology a sliding fee scale, which allows them to provide care to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay and if they have insurance or not.
Surge of migrant kids at public schools
Since the start of the 2022-23 school year, nearly 10,000 students from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have enrolled in Miami-Dade County public schools — about 2,500 more students than arrived in the entire 2021-22 year, reflecting the surge of immigrants coming from those four countries over the past six months.
All told, the district has enrolled more than 14,700 new students who have arrived in South Florida after emigrating from another country, an unexpected wave that comes at a time when the district is grappling with an already thin workforce and classroom teacher vacancies — one of the COVID-19 pandemic’s lingering effects.
Currently, the district is operating in what it calls the “engaging stage,” Chief Operating Officer Luis Diaz told the Herald. That means once the district is made aware of an influx, staff begins monitoring and targeting which schools students are enrolling in.
For the time being, no school has become too overcrowded or unable to provide the resources needed, Diaz said. Exact data was not available for which schools have received the majority of students so far this year.
Job placement and work authorization permits
Once processed by immigration officials, many migrants would have the ability to earn incomes if they obtain temporary work authorizations from the federal government.
But those requests face backlogs, leaving migrants unable to work while being allowed to remain in the United States and eligible for some federal assistance. Levine Cava wants federal assistance for nonprofit groups offering free legal help for asylum applications as well as work authorization permits and employment assistance.
At a Thursday meeting, Miami-Dade Commissioner René Garcia said he wants the board to urge Congress to relax the regulations to make it easier for migrants to hold jobs. “They’re here. They cannot get work. They cannot get permits,” he said. “It makes no sense when these individuals want to work but can’t.”
Homeless in a tough housing market
Miami-Dade’s Homeless Trust, the independent agency that oversees the county’s homeless funding, isn’t providing emergency shelter beds for migrants, according to Ron Book, chair of the Trust’s board. But leaders of private nonprofits that focus on undocumented residents are scrambling to find places for newly arrived migrants.
That’s made harder by Miami’s rental market, one of the least affordable in the country.
“I can’t remember a time when we were as strained as we are today,” Homeless Trust Director Victoria Mallette said at a recent County Commission committee hearing. “The rental market has pushed many households to the brink of homelessness.”
READ MORE: Homeless chief takes ‘hard line’ on shelter for migrants in Miami, calls it feds’ job
Nonprofit assistance groups
Carlos Naranjo runs a nonprofit program for newly arrived refugees, asylum seekers and others who crossed the United States border to escape their home countries. His staff has scrambled to keep up with increased demand.
“A year and a half ago, there were five people on my team,” said Naranjo, resettlement program manager for Church World Service in Doral. “Right now, we are 23.”
READ MORE: More migrants land in Keys, risking lives to escape ‘terrible situation’ in Cuba
At Church World Service, Naranjo said staff is busy with Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and other recent arrivals, as well as a sizable number of Ukrainians and some Afghans fleeing their war-torn countries for Miami.
Immigration lawyers in demand
In her letter, Levine Cava said recent arrivals are straining Miami’s network of nonprofits expert in the asylum process and other legal avenues for migrants.
“Several local nonprofit organizations and legal service providers are providing essential services to these individuals, but they are overwhelmed by the demand,” she wrote. Levine Cava asked for federal grants to help expand legal services for migrants.