As public school students prepare to begin the new school year, advocates and government leaders are pressing the city to cease a migrant-related policy that they believe is destructive to their growth and education.

Children in the garden.Photo byApaha SpionUnsplash

On Wednesday, hundreds of activists and MPs protested the Adams administration's policy of removing freshly arrived migrants from local shelters after 30 days for singles and 60 days for families.

Children Are Being Removed From School

Children are being removed from school and kept far, far away from their educational system by the 30 to 60 day eviction notice, according to Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. That throws them off balance. It throws the city off balance.

The protest was held the day before hundreds of thousands of pupils in public schools started lessons. Thousands of immigrant children who are just getting used to life in a new nation are among them.

Advocate Michelle Ferreria

According to Michelle Ferreria, she and her four kids were only housed in the city's shelter system for a year. Unlike recently arrived migrants, they were not even constrained by the mayor's rules for refugees in shelters.

Considering everything her children had to go through as young people, she continued, she is thankful that they are now healthy adults.

Advocates like Ferreria, who assists individuals in finding stable homes as a community partner for the charity Homes Works, are concerned that thousands of migrant children are going through similar experiences—or worse.