MONROE COUNTY, N.Y. — Deisi Sandoval and her family escaped threats from armed groups in Colombia.

On March 19, 2023, they crossed the border at Tijuana, Mexico. After four days in San Diego, they got put on a bus and traveled 2,759 miles to New York City.

The Sandovals volunteered into the migrant re-location assistance program, known as MRAP. That decision got them on another bus to Rochester.

They arrived in their apartment in the city on March 19, 2024.

“What is it like to be here?” I asked Deisi inside her apartment.

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity for our lives,” she said through an interpreter.
 
Sandoval says she and her husband were threatened in Colombia because they were social activists and the armed groups in the country didn’t like what they were saying.

“Definitely our lives were at risk,” she said.

Reports say 13% of asylum-seeking families that arrive in New York City are from Colombia. The most come from Venezuela.
 
The Sandovals are one of 94 migrant families re-settled in apartments in Monroe County. That’s a total of 359 people.

Both Deisi and her husband have landed jobs.

The agency in charge of their care is the IBERO American Action League. The CEO says housing and employment are the biggest challenges.

“We have a lot of jobs. There’s people willing to work,” said Angelica Perez-Delgado, president and CEO of IBERO American Action League. “But it doesn’t always play out as easy as folks think.”

By law, asylum-seekers must wait 150 days from the date they applied for asylum before they are eligible to work.

“It’s very traumatic,” said Yaniry Pena.

Pena fled the Dominican Republic with her children.

When I was in her apartment in Rochester two weeks ago she was struggling with her mental health and the security of the apartment where she was placed.

“She says ‘even the place I live here, all the windows are broken.’ They’re not stabilized,” said Mercedes Vasquez-Simmons, Pena’s translator. “She’s worried. That’s why she has the mattress there (covering the window), that someone is just going to push it in and take her children.”

Since our visit, we’ve learned Pena is looking for a new apartment in the city.

IBERO’s Perez-Delgado says families come with different levels of trauma and support.

Deisi, for instance, is here with her whole, immediate family.

“She’s here with her husband, she’s here with her young child,” she said. “Where other families we find are alone, moms are alone with multiple children.”

When she arrived in Rochester, Deisi Sandoval started writing inspirational notes to herself. She saves them in a jar.

“I’m thankful and I live in abundance,” Deisi said reading one of the sticky notes.

Sandoval begins working at the Jordan Health Center on North Clinton Avenue June 3.
 
I asked Sandoval what she wants our community to understand about families like hers.

“When we come here we come from a very difficult process, especially when that process is due to the fact that you have tried to do things good and that you have tried to help the community,” she said through her translator. “It’s complex. And I will say because of my experience, and that of my family, that is possible. I made the decision to say yes to life regardless of everything. Everyday I try and I am sure in my heart that we know we are doing the right things and God gives you the conditions to make sure that’s how it is. And I decided to say yes and try.”

These situations are complicated.

Last summer the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office found a family wandering in the Rochester airport when they were promised to be in New York City.

“We picked up a family in the middle of the night last summer that was wandering in the airport,” Perez-Delgado said. “They thought they were going to New York City and they ended up in Rochester, New York.”

IBERO pays for the rent, food and other items. The money comes from the New York State Office of Temporary Disability. The relocation fund received $25 million in the state budget passed in May, 2023.

“OTDA is committed to assisting migrant families that choose to relocate through the Migrant Relocation Assistance Program (MRAP),” the agency wrote in a statement for this story.  “This program assists families that include a member who is on a path to work authorization to relocate outside of New York City to work and ultimately take over payment of their rent.”

More information:

– The relocation aid is designed to help families for one year and covers rent, food, clothing, furniture.

– The system also helps enroll children in school.

– New York City screens families for eligibility and refers them to the program.

– There are five counties involved in MRAP: Albany, Erie, Monroe, Suffolk and Westchester.

– A total of 331 families have been relocated outside New York City, including 77 in Albany, 44 in Erie, 94 in Monroe, 48 in Suffolk, and 68 in Westchester counties.

– Families are only eligible if one member is on a path toward work authorization, choosing to relocate outside of New York City.

– Families choose what county they would like to move to. 

– There are another 869 families with expressed interest in relocating. Of these 869 families, 45 have signed leases with a move pending and another four are approved to move, pending lease signing.