CITY COLLEGE — “Strawberries! One dollar! One dollar!” a fruit seller in the South Bronx calls out. You hear the cry from almost every corner where migrant women sell ripe berries in all kinds of New York City weather. “I came with the dream that everyone comes here with, to excel beyond our capabilities,” said Elizabeth Lema from Ecuador.
The fruit sellers are among an influx of recent immigrant arrivals. Almost 15,000 asylum seekers reached Manhattan one cold night in December, 2023, bused from Texas.
