Newly arrived migrants encounter hazards of food delivery on the streets of NYC: robbers

NEW YORK CITY — Brad Song thought he was about to get his e-bike stolen a second time in a less than a month after delivering an order for Chinese food app Fantuan Delivery. Seven strangers surrounded the Chinese immigrant and knocked him off the scooter. He was rescued when a nearby motorist revved his engine, scaring the assailants.

His brakes were damaged and a phone used for navigation had its screen shattered, but, while the February attack in New York rattled Song, his bike and body emerged intact.

Asylum-seekers have gravitated to working food delivery in New York and other major cities, drawn by an abundance of customers and ease of getting started. But the job carries hazards, particularly thieves who target food delivery bikes. Newly arrived asylum-seekers have been easy targets. Some work without legal permission, which can make them fearful of seeking help in an emergency.

Dissatisfied with the police response, many delivery drivers have banded together.

Juan Solano, who migrated from the Mexican state of Guerrero in 2017, founded E l Diario de los Delivery Boys en la Gran Manzana, a group of delivery workers who help retrieve stolen e-bikes, often with the help of monitoring devices. Launched during the pandemic, the group has more than 50,000 followers on Facebook and a WhatsApp channel to alert delivery workers of robberies in real time.

Solano, 35, started working in food delivery during the pandemic with his nephew, Sergio, who had his e-bike stolen twice.

Thieves appear to target isolated areas near bridges that connect Manhattan to other boroughs, especially those with lighter police presence. They prey especially on those traveling alone.

A WhatsApp group, called Alert Willis, is dedicated to workers who ride the Willis Avenue Bridge connecting Manhattan to the Bronx.

Sergio Solano said he waited for other workers before crossing the Willis Avenue Bridge recently. After crossing, they turned back after learning on their phones that someone else was being robbed while traveling alone.

“The robber had some type of weapon, but we decided to confront him anyway,” Solano said. Outnumbered, the person fled without the bike.

New York migrant shelters have dozens, even hundreds, of scooters parked outside. The city estimates there are 65,000 food delivery workers — almost certainly an undercount — an unknown percentage of them newly-arrived asylum-seekers. A $1,000 investment for a bike is the main requirement.

Asylum-seekers must apply for a work permit, prompting many to work under the names of people who can legally work. Heisen Mao, a delivery worker and labor organizer, says drivers without work authorization typically pay an account owner between $400 and $500 a month, or about 20% of their revenue.

DoorDash spokesman Eli Scheinholtz said company safeguards against fraudulent accounts include requiring periodic selfies to verify identity. The company said bike thefts are “extremely rare.” Uber spokesman Josh Gold said in a statement that it has similar anti-fraud measures. Fantuan says it verifies the identity of each of its drivers in person and alerts couriers of high-crime areas.

The New York Police Department reported 11,157 thefts of bikes valued at $1,000 or more from 2018 through 2023, with sharp increases to a peak of nearly 3,000 in 2020, when supply-chain problems created huge demand. The thefts are concentrated in certain areas, with lower Manhattan the most prevalent.

Consequences can be deadly. In 2021, Francisco Villalba, 29, was fatally shot in the chest after refusing to give up his bike while taking a break at a playground. He had just finished a DoorDash delivery in East Harlem. His assailant was sentenced to 41 years in prison.

Tiburcio Castillo, 37, was fatally attacked on the Willis Bridge while riding his e-bike back home from a food delivery shift in 2022. After an extensive search, his family found him at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, in a coma, where he died. No one has been arrested.

Police insist they have been vigilant against theft.

“The NYPD will answer all calls for service and investigate all crimes reported regardless of immigration status,” the agency said in a statement.

The rise in asylum-seeking food delivery workers reflects a seismic shift in migration at the U.S. border from predominantly Mexican men trying to elude capture to single adults, families and unaccompanied children from dozens of countries around the world who surrender to Border Patrol agents.

The Border Patrol released about 1.6 million migrants with notices to appear in immigration court from January 2022 through April 2024 and about 600,000 under presidential powers known as “parole.” Since late 2022, the Biden administration granted entry to another 1 million migrants through new or expanded legal pathways using parole authority at land crossings or airports to stay up to two years and immediately obtain work authorization.

New York began seeing a large increase in the spring of 2022, fueled partly by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending busloads of people at his state’s expense. The city currently estimates it is currently home to about 195,000 newly arrived migrants.

Song, 30, arrived in New York last July amid a major increase in Chinese citizens coming to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route that has become increasingly popular with the help of social media. They start by flying to the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. Chinese people are the fourth-largest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darien Gap, according to Panamanian government data.

Chinese asylum-seekers say they are seeking to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.

Song had his first e-bike stolen off the sidewalk during his lunch break. The second assault, ending in a near miss in East Flushing, Queens, came only a month later.

“I shudder to think what might have happened if they had brandished a knife or a gun,” Song said.

Song eventually purchased a car to make deliveries.

Gustavo, an asylum seeker from Venezuela, living at the former Roosevelt Hotel, a city-run shelter, switched to a moped after his electric bike was stolen 15 days after he started delivering food. He reported it to police, to no avail.

“I knew where it was,” said Gustavo, who declined to give his last name. “But if I went there, I would have beaten the thief up and then I would have been screwed because he would be the victim.”

Fidel Luna, who has delivered food for a restaurant in upper Manhattan since he arrived in New York from Mexico in 2020, tracked his stolen e-bike to a building in January and immediately notified police. He said his repeated inquiries to police have elicited no response.

Police declined to comment on his case.

Luna, 29, borrowed his brother’s bike to keep working. He kept track of his original bike and planned to intercept if the moment was right.

“I would like the police to help but I cannot wait, I need to get my bike back.”

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This is a collaboration between journalists with Documented, an independent non-profit newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities, and the Associated Press. Attanasio is an AP reporter based in New York. Ojeda, Castillo and Xu work with Documented.