Canal street, February 2026 — Betty says her previous jobs paid only $20 to $50 a day, making it difficult to cover living expenses, save for asylum-related expenses and send money home.

She says they have grown rougher since she arrived in New York and began taking whatever jobs she could find, including dishwashing, painting and cleaning.

Bronx, February 2026 — Betty heads home to the Bronx after work on Canal Street.

Bronx, February 2026 — Betty lives in an apartment in the Bronx with seven othe

Bronx, February 2026 — Betty prays while preparing tea at her apartment in the Bronx for sale the next day.

ICE is on Canal Street…. I’m going home. ICE agents are here and arresting Senegalese over there.

Betty, a nickname, is a Senegalese asylum seeker who arrived in New York in 2023. Since coming to the United States, she has accepted whatever work was available, including washing dishes, painting and cleaning. “My hands have become hard since I arrived here,” she told me over dinner at a Senegalese restaurant in Little Senegal, Harlem, after a day of street vending on Canal Street.

Those jobs often paid her only $20 to $50 - too little to support herself in New York. After speaking with other Senegalese immigrants, she began selling goods on Canal Street, where she could earn more than she did through physically demanding day labor.

Betty currently shares a home with seven Senegalese men and says she has experienced problems with her roommates. Her immediate dream is simple: to have a room of her own. She hopes that once she finds stable, adequately paid work, she will be able to move out and live independently.