00:00All this for free. This is the special offer the Little Shop of Kindness makes to new immigrants here in New York City.
00:07For example, for my daughter, I have this shirt. It's almost summer season, God willing.
00:16Luz came to the U.S. from Colombia with her husband and two children. It's her first time at the shop. How does she feel about it?
00:26Very, very grateful, really, because you come here as an immigrant and you don't have anything.
00:32I'm very grateful for the way they take care of you, for the help that they give.
00:38The Little Shop of Kindness was founded by Ilsa Thielmann in 2022.
00:42Besides providing much-needed material help to immigrants, it is exactly this kind of positive experience that she wanted to give those who come here.
00:52I was really determined to create a space where they could, where our guests could have some agency over what they chose,
01:01to have the dignity of trying things on and being treated as valued customers rather than a problem.
01:08Ilsa started the shop in response to a surge in immigrant arrivals to New York in 2022.
01:14Many of them bused to the city from southern states. About 175,000 of them have arrived since then and are being accommodated in makeshift shelters across the city.
01:25We started getting busloads of migrants sent here by the governor of Texas.
01:30And we just rallied the troops and got, you know, lots and lots of volunteers.
01:34We started with about 10 volunteers in August, and by December we had 800 people signed up to help out with that.
01:41And we've only grown since then.
01:43Over 1,000 volunteers have registered online by now and keep the shop running.
01:48They handle the donations from individuals and companies and provide help to guests, many of whom don't speak English.
01:56Doris is originally from Colombia and came here to study English. In her free time, she helps out at the shop.
02:03I've always loved to be able to help. In my country I did it too.
02:08And here I had the opportunity to do it, so here I am, giving this beautiful service to so many people.
02:16This personal support and the welcoming atmosphere have made the shop popular amongst new immigrants.
02:22So much so that it started causing problems.
02:25We used to have a line out in front of our shop, in front of our pop-ups.
02:33And people were so desperate that oftentimes people would sleep outside the night before, outside the shop, so they could be first in line.
02:40Now, people can simply sign up and book an appointment through an app.
02:44Most of the shop's guests are from Latin America, but now more and more come from African countries and China as well, Ilse says.
02:53With immigration being front and center of this year's election campaign,
02:57she says she is worried about the increasingly extreme rhetoric used against immigrants.
03:02Just the election itself and the campaigns, it's going to intensify around immigration.
03:08And I'm hoping that people recognize that immigrants are an asset to this country and don't believe the lies that are being told about them.
03:19The contentious immigration debate will continue to shape U.S. politics beyond the election.
03:24But local initiatives like Ilse's shop will continue to make a difference with the little act of kindness.
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