On my way home after my day off, I gas up at one gas station in Monmouth County. For the last year, one recent immigrant from India fills my tank. Last time, I noticed he looked so tired around 7 in the evening. Speaking a little English, he mentioned he had been working since 6 in the morning and would close at 9 o’clock – that’s 15 hours straight.
Other employees who want to earn extra money might agree to such a grueling daily schedule, but I wonder if recent immigrants know they do not have to work so long in a day.
Reflecting on her many years as an immigration lawyer, Susan N. Rosti, whose office as a solo practitioner is in Caldwell and who had until recently lived and worked for years in Jersey City, finds that immigrants populate the healthcare, travel, food and construction industries.
“They want to improve their communities, take care of their families and be productive members of society,” she said.
Many migrants have come to the United States because of terrible conditions in their homelands and seek to stay through the asylum process. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse out of Syracuse University, there are 1.6 million asylum seekers waiting for their hearings — the most ever in U.S. history.
Rosti explained that there is a one-year deadline from the moment someone enters the U.S. to file for asylum and this is difficult because most immigrants do not have the financial resources to hire a lawyer. Another hurdle is the waiting time – 150 days — to apply for a legal work permit after filing for asylum.
In May 2023, I met Usman (not his real name), an African refugee who had just arrived at the Lighthouse in Union City, a residence for migrants seeking asylum. His life had been threatened and twice he was arrested, imprisoned, brutalized and almost poisoned in his former home country, Ghana. Within days of his arrival here, though, he was pounding the Bergenline Avenue pavement looking for any kind of work. Eventually he found a job in Passaic County, but his employer paid him well below the prevailing hourly wage, he said. He took the job until he was able to get an authorization to work and found a reputable position in New York.
“This causes a great deal of financial distress for individuals who have the ambition and desire and ability to work,” Rosti said. She also noted some employers subject immigrants to work for extremely low wages and even abuse.
Migrants, she said, also face extremely long wait times to see a judge to present their case against deportation or removal as well as extremely long processing times for affirmative asylum claims. As of November, she said, there were 3.6 million people in removal proceedings. Many of her clients have to wait until 2026 with some in 2028 and even 2029 for their asylee hearings.
Usman, a Muslim, called me Christmas Day with greetings and told me his asylum hearing is scheduled for 2026. In the meantime, he’s hoping to bring the mother of his daughter and the baby he left behind to the U.S. He said they are safe and he FaceTime’s them regularly, but he misses them.
“Migrants’ loved ones die and get sick and they cannot attend funerals because to do so would be self-deporting,” Rosti said.
Despite all the legal hurdles now, Rosti is worried for the future. She expects President-elect Trump to eliminate DACA completely, to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians — many of whom are her clients — and eliminate the Immigration Court system and any form of due process.
Immigration lawyer Susan Rosti describes the many challenges and hurdles those seeking asylum in the United States face. (Marie Papp photo courtesy of Susan Rosti)Marie Papp photo courtesy of Susan Rosti
Rosti’s parents immigrated from Iran.
“When I was younger, I had a dream of assisting other Iranians who were interested in immigrating from Iran to the United States as well as providing assistance to battered and abused women,” she said.
She graduated from Rutgers and Pace Law School. Though Muslim, Rosti attends Catholic Mass with her husband, Michael, and she knows the Bible.
Migration is historic. Even Jesus, Mary and Joseph were migrants. According to the Bible, an angel of the Lord told Joseph to flee to Egypt in a dream, as described in Matthew 2:13–23, and to stay there until Herod died and the angel gave further instructions. This ancient example of forced migration drives much of the movement today of peoples across national and even continental boundaries.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote that “Jesus, the true son, himself went into exile in a very deep sense in order to lead all of us home from exile.”
The incoming Trump administration plans to rescind a long-standing policy preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests in houses of worship, schools and hospitals, according to many news outlets. Trump has pledged to carry out “the largest deportation program in American history.” He wants to financially penalize sanctuary cities and has also indicated his willingness to involve the military to carry out the deportation program, which is technically illegal to use military on U.S. soil.
All houses of worship should be worried since it may depress attendance out of fear of being arrested. Migrants, whether documented or not, may also delay needed medical care or going to work.
“The U.S. bishops should be very concerned about this deportation scheme and push back against it strongly, as it is as much an attack on the life of the church in this country as it is against immigrant families,” J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York, told America Magazine.
Despite a bleak future, Rosti has been inspired by her clients.
“They want to go to school and get a good education,” she said. “They want to live their lives in safety and freedom. To not be afraid to be who they are and who they can love.”
Reverence for the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph can inspire us to extend that same dignity to any immigrant or refugee family desiring residence in the U.S. Let’s work toward implementing humane treatment for all families — no matter their country of origin.
The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; X: @padrehoboken.
