Author: JHISN

JHISN Newsletter 02/28/2026

Posted on February 28, 2026 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

It has been a wild winter in New York City since our last newsletter, and we hope this finds you warm and well. Our previous newsletter also landed in your inbox the day, January 24, that Alex Pretti was murdered in the street by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in Minneapolis. Alex Pretti and Renée Nicole Good, both US citizens, join six immigrants who died in ICE custody in January—Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parady La, Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, and Heber Sánchez Domínguez—to make January 2026 a dreadful, deadly start to this new year of mass deportations.  

Today’s newsletter looks at the ongoing campaign to pass NYS legislation, the NY4All Act, that would strengthen protections for immigrants in the face of federal government attacks. Our second article reflects on how local sanctuary policies can help defend against the many border transgressions the Trump regime carries out in its selective “border war” against immigration.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. New York for All legislation: Can the New York State Assembly stand up?
  2. Protecting the borders we need: Local sanctuary against ICE incursions.

1. Pass NY4All Act Now, Or NY Will Have Normalized the Trump/Miller Agenda

“Silence is complicity. Inaction is complicity. We have the tools to protect our immigrant communities and we must use them. Federal immigration enforcement is cruel, chaotic, and unconstitutional. New York will not be complicit.” —Kristen Gonzalez, NY State Senator.

A February campaign by the NYCLU stated: “Pass the New York for All Act. Fight back against Trump’s mass deportation agenda and protect immigrant communities in New York.” That was back in 2020. The NY4All Act, if passed, would have prohibited the use of New York’s local and state resources to support federal immigration enforcement. That could have helped us stand in the courts with more challenges to the escalating inhumanity of the US deportation operations. The campaigns documented the social and economic benefits we would gain if New York’s communities did not cooperate with ICE. But no legislative action was taken.

Throughout the last six years, the cruelty of the detention and deportation machine has increased. Advocates like the New York Immigration Coalition, Make The Road New York, The Bronx Defenders, the Immigrant Defense Project, labor unions, the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys, and many other groups have continued to lobby Albany. They all demand the passage of the New York for All Act. In February 2025, NY legislators even reintroduced the Act because the guidance from NYC’s then-mayor Eric Adams was legally confusing. But no legislative action was taken.

On January 12, 2026, after the murder of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, a NY For All: March For The Disappeared rally took place in Albany. Advocates returned once again to the state capitol on January 26–just days after the ICE murder of Alex Pretti–to demand passage of NY4All. Then, at the end of last month, Governor Kathy Hochul suddenly proposed her own Local Cops, Local Crimes Act. The purpose of Hochul’s act is to end the ‘weaponization’ of local police against their own communities by banning the 287(g) agreements that require them to cooperate with ICE. Even though many organizations, like the Asian American Federation, support this as a first step, the overwhelming preference of all groups is to pass the more substantial NY4All Act. 

There is concern that Hochul’s proposal might, in fact, preempt the NY4All Act and its more robust protections. As Assemblymember Dr. Anna Kelles pointed out, the 287(g) agreements that Hochul focused on are just one of the many proposals in the NY for All Act. Missing from Hochul’s proposal are additional safeguards, “designed to prevent immigration enforcement from happening through routine questioning, record keeping, database practices, probation operations, and behind-the-scenes information sharing.”

In addition to the NY4All Act, there are even more legislative proposals that Albany can pass to protect NY residents:

These many proposals are ready for the legislature to pass: let us demand our elected officials do more than just create media bites opposing ICE and, instead, take legislative action to protect our communities. A new proposal was even added this month, by Westchester’s State Senator Shelley Mayer, to prohibit ICE from gaining access to schools without a judicial order. The NYCLU, with the New York for All Coalition, published a press release urging Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart‑Cousins to work with the NY4All bill’s sponsors. One of the sponsors of the original 2020 New York for All Act said she had no explanation for why state Democrats have not pushed to vote on the bill:

“There is no reason to delay its passage any longer. As lawmakers, we have an obligation to not just speak out, but to actually pass legislation that will protect our immigrant communities.” —Julie Salazar, State Senator.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Sanctuary Keeps Us Safe: The Borders in Our Backyards

On a recent Saturday afternoon, you may have seen them on 37th Avenue or Northern Boulevard: neighbors out in front of local TD Banks, flyering. You may have taken a flyer in English, or Urdu, or Spanish, or Hindi or Chinese or Bangla. You may have gone into the TD Bank, as the flyer suggests, to complain to a manager about TD Bank allowing ICE to use their parking lot on Northern as a staging area for harassing and arresting neighbors in Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst.

The Trump regime’s mass deportation campaign—hyperfunded by citizens’ and immigrants’ tax dollars—is violating a whole lot of borders as they escalate their border wars against migration. The border between local private property and federal un/lawful operations is transgressed when ICE or CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) uses TD Bank or Home Depot property to launch the targeting and arrests of community members. The border between municipal policing and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents’ activities is violated when the federal government tries to coerce local police to participate in federal enforcement. (Governor Hochul, as reported above, has recently proposed legislation that would bar NYS police from cooperating with ICE).

Most profoundly, the border between targeting crime—of so-called “illegal” aliens—and systematically committing crimes is blown up when Trump’s ICE/ CBP minions engage in breaking and entering, jailing people who are never charged with a crime, murdering US citizens, and illegally holding thousands of US residents in detention deemed unlawful by US courts.

What is at stake in this reckless violation of borders between private and public, local policing and federal persecution, or fighting crime and carrying out crimes? The politics of state terror and generalized fear require that none of us feel there is refuge or a reliable haven from arbitrary, even fatal, federal government violence. A key reason that sanctuary laws are under attack by this federal government is precisely because they promise refuge from government harassment, surveillance, and targeting.

Sanctuary laws, including in New York City, try to affirm and regulate the border between community safety and federal immigration enforcement. Drawing on the power and sovereignty granted by the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution, local jurisdictions argue that sanctuary laws protect immigrant witnesses and victims of crime, and encourage all of us to participate in police and judicial processes without fear. While there is a wide range of sanctuary policies across different cities, counties, and states, almost all are aimed at promoting economic vibrancy and public safety within local communities, preventing local or state agencies from sharing protected data about citizenship status with the federal government, and allowing local or state governments to determine their own priorities and resource allocations. None of the policies actively prevent federal immigration authorities from carrying out their lawful operations.

Now the Trump regime is challenging sanctuary cities and states in the courts. Why? To stomp across the borders that we have drawn around community safety and immigrant solidarity. The DOJ dragged New York City into court in July 2025, and just last week New Jersey was sued by the DOJ for its sanctuary policies. 

This week, NY’s Attorney General filed an amicus brief defending New York City’s laws, stating, “Our city was built by immigrants, and this administration’s attempts to overturn local laws that protect them are unjust and unconstitutional.” On February 6, Mayor Mamdani signed an executive order strengthening the city’s sanctuary policies, requiring city agencies to comply with all relevant laws, and prohibiting ICE from entering city properties (schools, hospitals, shelters) without a judicial warrant.

“We keep us safe.” Let’s protect the borders between public assault and private space, between local jurisdiction and federal overkill. Between community safety and authoritarian threat.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

  • Support Jackson Heights Indivisible’s (JHI) email campaign asking TD Bank to not allow ICE staging operations in its parking lot. Email TD Bank at CustomerAdvocacyandInsights@td.com or Thomas.Rigg@td.com
  • Check JHI’s public calendar for local immigrant solidarity actions.
  • Attend NYIC’s Neighborhood Defense / KYR training at LaGuardia Community College on March 17 from 12 – 1:30 pm

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

JHISN Newsletter 01/24/2026

Posted on January 24, 2026 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

Yesterday, New York City joined protests around the country, standing with striking Minnesotans who have risen in the cold as a powerful anti-ICE voice. They represent a people’s resistance against the always escalating, harmful, militarized tactics of Homeland Security. The entire nation watched a federal agent shoot and kill Renee Good—a poet, mother, and citizen who refused to ignore the inhumane federal deportation operations in her Minneapolis neighborhood.  The president, and others in the administration and blamestream media, peddled the lie that Good was a domestic terrorist who was the cause of her own death. The person who clearly killed Renee Good was not a newly hired agent who lacked training: Jonathan Ross served more than 10 years in ICE’s elite Special Response Team.

While many agree that ICE (established less than 25 years ago) should be abolished, most Democrat leaders appear to be following the guidance of a “Don’t Say Abolish ICE” memo. Written by a former Customs and Border Protection official who is now a corporate consultant for the defense and surveillance sector, the memo advises reforming and retraining ICE. Fortunately, our new Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, remains strong in his stance. He stated on ABC’s, The View, “I am in support of abolishing ICE…We’re seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it’s doing is terrorizing people”. 

Today’s newsletter reports on NYC’s now ex-mayor’s veto, just as he left office, of City Council legislation promoting immigrant and economic justice. We then offer an update on battles over Temporary Protective Status (TPS), including the good news of a recent court decision that reverses the Trump regime’s cancellation of protections for Nepali TPS holders. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Eric Adams vetoes immigrant justice in cruel exit act
  2. Temporary Protective Status (TPS) under attack: Update

1. Eric Adams’ Last Betrayal

“It is unsurprising that this mayor is ending his term by demonstrating, once again, that protecting and supporting working-class New Yorkers is not his priority. His vetoes put special interests above greater affordability and opportunity for hardworking New Yorkers, and public safety.” — Outgoing City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams

On his last day in office, Eric Adams—a mayor we have long criticized for scapegoating immigrants—vetoed three key pro-immigrant legislative packages that had been passed by large majorities in the City Council. The bills were among a total of 19 measures Adams vetoed, as a final New Year’s Eve “drop dead” to the lawmakers and the people of New York.

One of the vetoed packages aims to regulate and reform street vending. Among its provisions is the long-delayed raising of the cap on the number of vending licenses. Local Councilmember Shekar Krishnan had praised passage of the package as “a historic day for workers.” The legislation became urgent after Mayor Adams, who had promised to raise the cap and dial down punitive enforcement against vendors, made a quick 180-degree turn, joining with right-wing forces in a campaign to uproot and intimidate vendors in Corona Plaza, Roosevelt Avenue, and other parts of the city.

Another veto casualty was Tiffany Cabán’s Safer Sanctuary Act. This would outlaw the establishment of ICE offices on Rikers Island, something that has been contentious throughout Adams’ tenure. That act would also close a loophole in the city’s sanctuary laws, making it clear that the restrictions they place on cooperation with federal authorities would apply to all immigration enforcement agencies, not just ICE.

Adams’ third anti-immigrant veto gave a thumbs down to badly-needed legislation defending deliveristas from a wave of arbitrary “deactivations”—firings—initiated by delivery app companies. The Council measure requires that delivery workers be given a reason for deactivation, the right to appeal, and a 120-day notice before permanent deactivation.

According to city law, once the vetoes were formally registered, which happened on January 7, the Council has 30 days to override them, a process which requires a 2/3rds majority vote. The clock is ticking, with many other priorities competing for legislators’ attention in the new year.

New Council Speaker Julie Menin can strongly influence the fate of the vetoed bills, since she largely controls legislative scheduling and agendas. In practice, she seems unlikely to run out the clock on these three measures, which were all passed with “veto-proof “ majorities. For instance, the measure lifting the vendor license cap was passed by a margin of 39-9, as was the Safer Sanctuary Act. The bill defending deliveristas passed 40-8. Menin is a supporter of sanctuary laws, and was actually a co-sponsor of the street vendor bill.

However, Menin has refused to commit to overriding all of Mayor Adams’ vetoes, saying only that “the Council will consider next steps on these bills.”

NYC lawmakers have been given further impetus to act by ICE’s arrest of one of their own staffers, Venezuelan immigrant Andres Rubio Bohorquez, at a routine asylum interview. Menin and many other Council members have expressed concern and anger at ICE over the data analyst’s detention. This attack on one of their own employees is likely to concentrate the Council’s attention, bringing home how much is at stake for immigrants in their deliberations.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. The Ongoing Weaponization Of TPS

“The harm already caused by the administration’s cruel, lawless actions cannot be undone, but we are hopeful that, with this ruling, the new year will bring a measure of justice and peace to the TPS holder community.” —Jessica Bansal, attorney at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)

The new year started positively for Adhikaar, the Queens-based group that serves and supports the Nepali-speaking community in NYC. They shared welcome news that a Northern California District Court judge ruled that the Trump administration had illegally ended TPS for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua. Adhikaar applauded the work of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and other members of the National TPS Alliance who argued the legal case, which affects around 60,000 people nationwide, including thousands of Queens residents.

Ama Frimpong, the Legal Director of CASA, stated that the ruling clearly showed TPS cannot be terminated based on racialized political narratives. Frimpong continued, “This decision is not only a victory for TPS holders from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal, but an encouraging signal for TPS holders from Venezuela, Cameroon, Afghanistan, and beyond who are fighting to protect their families and their futures.” 

Two days later, after US forces captured and removed the president of Venezuela, Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem announced that Venezuelans in the US under TPS had the opportunity to apply for refugee status. There was no hint as to how more than 600,000 people could do that when the US government has limited the total number of refugees per year to just 7,500. A few hours after her announcement, the Homeland Security eX-twitter account denied that Noem had ever said that, and instead reaffirmed that she had ended TPS for more than 500,000 people. The post suggested that, “now they can go home to a country that they love.” Even those Venezuelans who are happy about Maduro’s removal say returning is an extreme risk.

Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the US. Just days after a weekend of national protest in the wake of the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, and Homeland Security’s brutal tactics in the Twin Cities, Trump announced the termination of TPS for Somalis. Ignoring the economic destabilization it will bring, he declared legal protections for Somali nationals enrolled in the TPS program will be ended in two months, on March 17. He claimed that country conditions had improved, an opinion easily contradicted by the work of Freedom House, which has monitored the state of global freedom for 85 years: currently, they give Somalia a Global Freedom Score of 8 out of 100; the US score is 84. 

The day after Trump’s Somalia announcement, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments for the second of the National TPS Alliance lawsuits, defending Haitians and Venezuelans. A Federal Judge has indicated she will not rule on the Haitian TPS case until February 6, which is just one day before that protection is set to expire. Just as the year began, and our article started with hope from NDLON, so these recent fraught weeks have ended with Ahilan Arulanantham, the Co-Director of UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law & Policy (CILP) stating, “We hope the court will insist the administration comply with the law as Congress intended it to by engaging in an objective assessment of the country conditions in Venezuela.” 

We wonder, is “hope” really enough?

WHAT CAN WE DO?

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

JHISN Newsletter 12/20/2025

Posted on December 20, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

Warmest greetings to our readers as the winter solstice arrives, giving us the dark gift of the longest night of the year. Together with many non-Western and indigenous cultures, we remember that the dark is a place of rest and dream, of healing and the first life of buried seed. May you be well, this winter season.

December confronts us with the growing presence of ICE in our neighborhoods. Our newsletter this month is devoted to citywide and community-based organizing to defend against the federal government’s paramilitary deportation operations. And we report on the first, though likely not the last, breach of masked federal agents with assault weapons on our streets in Jackson Heights on December 4. “We keep us safe,” says Black Lives Matter. May we keep safe together.  

Newsletter Highlights:
  1. Reportback on Hands Off NYC trainings
  2. ICE and federal agents’ operations in Jackson Heights

1. Hands Off NYC Bolsters Neighborhood ICE Watch

“Protests are great, but they are not enough. We need sustained neighborhood responses.”—Hands Off NYC trainer

On a recent Saturday afternoon, around 500 people rode an escalator past a wall inscribed with these incomplete words of MLK Jr., “FREEDOM IS NEVER VOLUNTARILY GIVEN BY THE OPPRESSOR”. The sentence continued, in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Four hours later, the crowd left energized and educated by the articulate women-led activism trainers of Hands Off NYC, a coordinated initiative supported by over 100 community groups, union and worker organizations, and immigrant, human rights groups, and faith-based groups. They shared tactics and guidance for everyone to take action in their New York City neighborhoods to oppose the injustices that grow more egregious every day, including collective defense against the mass deportation campaign led by ICE. They talked about the Authoritarian Playbook of 2025, described “The People’s Response” as a culture of defiance, and concluded with a Know Your Rights (KYR) overview described as a way for us all to embody democracy. The day ended in smaller breakout groups for people who live in shared neighborhoods to meet together and plan next steps.

The training was geared particularly at people new to activism and immigrant justice struggles, and did not highlight the local organizing going on for decades by immigrant-led groups. Attendees were disproportionately retirees, women, and predominantly white. In one breakout room, just one man sat among 25 women; all of them willing to take to the streets to support the freedoms supposedly guaranteed to immigrant neighbors being snatched from local courthouses, streets, and homes, and now from interstate flights by the TSA, or threatened in hospitals, schools, and churches by masked and militarized government enforcers working for, or with, ICE. 

As the training began, the presenter noted an ICE raid was reportedly underway. The key to successfully opposing these federal incursions, she said, is to preempt, to prepare, and to stand up. Local action cannot come from the large groups like Hands Off NYC. Instead, local people must build within our own neighborhood communities for mass action and rapid response. We must create spaces where we protect one another. For this, effective communication will be vital. A retired woman in the crowd shared that she holds vigil with a silent protest outside her local subway stop—she stands holding posters of people ICE has kidnapped. The people walking by have been taking notice—slowing down and looking. A crucial first step is getting people to pay attention.

Another presenter stressed that a pillar of organizing is to do the work in places where you have influence. That is your power. That is how you reach people and make change. Yes, it was invigorating to see that the Hands Off NYC protests grew from 75,000 attendees to 125,000, and then to 300,000. The crowds reveal growing opposition to MAGA oppression; however, it is you, not that massive crowd, who can teach the people close to you about what we can do to prepare before ICE escalations occur. She suggests you take signs for businesses to hang up that clearly state which spaces are designated as private; that sign quickly shows federal enforcers where they cannot go without a warrant. You can choose the people you can influence. Talking to neighbors builds a Culture of Defiance, as shown when a group recently challenged the callous actions of ICE agents in Staten Island. 

One critical concept is the importance of bogging ICE down. Non-cooperation means you make things harder for the enforcers who rely on people abdicating their rights when faced with domineering actions. This also works for corporate accountability protests, such as the ice scraper slowdown at an LA Home Depot and, this past weekend, in NYC. 

Use your whistles to attract a crowd at the scene to reveal the problem. If it is between 6 am and 6 pm, then call the dispatch hotline 1-229-304-8720 to report the ICE activity. When others gather around, use chants like “Shame, Shame, Shame” or “Let Them Go! Let Them Go!”, shouted at the abductors. That has been a powerful way to reduce the aggression of the federal agents. It breaks their expectation that people will be docile out of fear. As a result, ICE has sometimes given up and left.

The trainers advised us, while documenting a raid, to film what is going on, focus on the facts, not emotions. Record, narrate, and describe the agents (not the abductee), including their clothing, their vehicles, their weapons. Use the SALUTE method to report what you have seen to local ICEWatch groups that you have found and joined. If the agents confront you with any questions, it is helpful to model the KYR response that you do not need to answer their questions. Importantly, they say, do not call the police: adding more armed enforcers to a group of armed enforcers is an escalation, not a slowdown. 

It is important to note that Federal agents are not immune from state prosecution. When appropriate, activists can upload videos and photos of the abductions, along with a SALUTE summary, to the NY State Attorney General’s Federal Action Reporting Form. You do not need to provide your own contact information.

Last weekend, in Queens, another well-attended borough-based training was held. The turnout allowed people to start discussing actions they can take in their designated neighborhood groups: Astoria; Woodside with Jackson Heights; Long Island City with Sunnyside; Forest Hills with Rego Park; Corona, Elmhurst, and East Elmhurst with Oakland Gardens; and another group for those from over 20 more Queens neighborhoods. On the following day in Jackson Heights, for two hours, ten people came together for the first time to create whistle packages for distribution to businesses and individuals. Local action is growing.

Serious challenges, of course, remain. It is immigrants themselves who must lead NYC’s battle with ICE. As the Hands Off NYC coalition itself insists, it is up to local communities to build networks and organize the fightback. A decisive role in our area will likely be played by the deeply rooted local immigrant justice organizations, who may have their own analyses of the situation, and their own tactics.

Yet Hands Off NYC has, in a way, “broken the ice,”  unleashing the energy of, and offering resources to, thousands of New Yorkers who are eager to oppose ICE. They have also given activists in various neighborhoods a framework for meeting and figuring out the way forward together.

To close, we offer a humble extension to the MLK Jr. quote that opened this article:

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; It must be demanded by the oppressed; who must be defended by the people.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Neighborhood ICE Raids: Update

“This is the first time we’ve seen something like this in Jackson Heights, on this level.” –neighbor, quoted in Queens Daily Eagle (12/4/25)

The news travelled fast and many of our readers may have heard: In the early morning of Thursday, December 4, dozens of federal agents armed with assault weapons arrived in unmarked vehicles and a helicopter to conduct a raid on a residential building near 34th Ave and 88th St. Many of the agents wore black masks and HSI uniforms (Homeland Security Investigations, an investigative arm of ICE). A video of the raid, circulated by State Senator Jessica Ramos, shows a militarized swarm of agents with rifles in our streets. Two residents of the building were taken away in handcuffs, while neighbors also swarmed the pre-dawn scene to verbally confront the armed agents.

The names of the people taken, where they are now, the target and rationale for the militarized spectacle of arrest remain unknown. But we do know this: one Jackson Heights resident reported “incredible pride at how many people showed up at six in the morning and just yelled in the faces of ICE agents on the street.”

In the hour before the December 4 raid, the masked federal agents blocked local traffic and set up a checkpoint for cars at a residential intersection. “Taken together, these raids and roadblocks build a steady drumbeat of fear and spectacle, even when there are no cameras around,” notes Epicenter news. The Jackson Heights operation, they explain, fits a broader pattern where we see ICE increasingly conduct “semi-covert” and quick “surgical actions” across the NYC boroughs, rather than the more publicized, dramatic raids we have seen documented on social media nationwide. “The effect is the same, if not greater—an atmosphere of constant fear and uncertainty for immigrants who live, work, congregate and raise families on these blocks.” 

As JHISN reports in our article above, people are getting angry and getting organized as a stunningly reckless, sadistic, and lawless mass deportation campaign ramps up and gets all too real. But we also join with longstanding immigrant justice groups, embedded in local immigrant communities, to caution against a singular focus on the threat and terror of visible ICE raids. We are reminded that solidarity includes honoring the existing immigrant networks of collective defense and community knowledge—invisible to those of us outside the networks—that have been doing the work behind the scenes to educate, communicate, defend, and support. We are asked to consider extending our commitments beyond whistles and rushing to the latest ICE sighting, to also include:  

  • Fundraising and donations: Organize aware friends and family into a rotating monthly donation pool. Fundraise in your pool for immigrant-led local groups who are doing direct mutual aid and support with impacted families around legal fees, rent, or lost income due to detentions.
  • Legal support: Attend legal webinars and monitor the constantly changing legal landscape for people who are detained. By supporting families or individuals through ongoing legal cases, we can learn hands-on what is needed and what is possible. 
  • Relations with activists living near detention centers: Reach out to and support the work of activists and allies who are geographically close to immigrant detention centers in New York and New Jersey or elsewhere. What actions can facilitate support for people being released from detention, or families trying to visit loved ones who are detained?  

As one respected Queens-based immigrant justice group notes: “The deportation machine is big and has many parts, we must match it with our skillsets and numbers.”

In just this past week, there have been reports of ICE using the vacant Rite Aid parking lot on Northern Blvd for a staging ground, and multiple ICE sightings in East Jackson Heights and Corona, with one arrest near the corner of Junction and Roosevelt. As responding to local threats becomes more urgent, let’s keep sharing what works. Let’s reflect on what we are best positioned to do. Let’s remember that all of this is also emotion work that needs to be grounded and sustained. And let’s collectively attend to how power is distributed within our cultures of defiance and our communities of care. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 11/22/2025

Posted on November 22, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

It is now a fact. Zohran Mamdani won the NYC mayoral election—by an enthusiastic margin. He will be sworn in on January 1, 2026, as the immigrant mayor of this city built on immigrant labor, dreams, and community. Our own Jackson Heights-based DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving) sibling organization, DRUM Beats, mobilized its South Asian and Indo-Caribbean membership to play a major role in Mamdani’s successful campaign. 

Given the threats this week from Thomas Homan, Trump’s so-called ’border czar,’ the most important part of today’s newsletter may be our WHAT CAN WE DO? section at the very end. We report first on ICE’s recent escalation of attacks here in Queens, and next, on your responses to our reader survey on how to prepare for ICE invasions in our own neighborhood. We conclude with actions you can take, and trainings and groups you can join, to collectively defend our communities. Please join us in learning what solidarity will look like in our immigrant-led New York City. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Our neighborhood faces escalating ICE raids
  2. Reportback on JHISN reader survey: Actions and suggestions to confront ICE

1. ICE Is Here–How Do We Respond?

It seemed inevitable. After a months-long brutal mass deportation campaign at the Federal Plaza courthouses in Manhattan, ICE has now started ramping up street raids in Queens, knowing that almost half of us (over one million residents) were born outside the US. 

In the first week of November, 97th Street and 41st Avenue in Corona became the main focus of a major ICE dragnet, resulting in the confirmed abductions of 12 neighbors. Other parts of Corona were also hit. As reported by Queens Neighborhoods United (QNU), these were not targeted arrests of individuals using judicial warrants. Instead, Latinos walking down the street, sitting in their cars, or riding bikes were racially profiled and arrested by swarms of agents. ICE used deception tactics—for instance, rotating out agents who might be recognized, or pretending to be done for the day, then suddenly returning to trap more residents. 

We note that ICE has been active in our community for some time. According to one well-informed activist, an average of two people a day were already being detained in the Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst area prior to the 97th St. raids. ICE has recently been sighted, banging on doors on 79th Street near Roosevelt Avenue at 5:00 AM, presumably trying to serve a warrant. However, QNU says, “ICE is escalating. They are using more elaborate ruses and traps. We must respond.”

Parts of the Corona assault were recorded on video, and some local residents tried to warn pedestrians using whistles. These efforts need to grow into a mass response by our whole community. We need well-organized ICE Watch and rapid response teams to monitor federal agents and keep our neighborhoods informed. We need a widespread whistle campaign so that every resident can take part in sounding an alert when ICE appears. We need enough people in the street to make it hard to trap anybody. 

This counter-escalation has started to emerge. We encourage our readers to be active according to your capabilities. Please see our What Can We Do? section at the end of our next article.

2. JHISN Reader Survey: Take Local Action Against ICE’s Illegal Activity

“[T]hey were here and they were everywhere. Smash and grab jobs happening across the city nearly simultaneously. But the things being stolen aren’t jewels, they’re lives. Off streets, from yards. One roofer plucked off a ladder. A landscaper thrown to the ground, tackled by a half-dozen men in camo with weapons …. What I need you to understand is that nobody is letting them go quietly. The Feds’ every movement is announced by a chorus of whistles, by a parade of cars honking in their wake, neighbors rushing outside to yell to film to witness these kidnappings that are unfolding in front of us. Neighbors running towards trouble.” – Dan Sinker, “What I Need You to Understand, Notes from Chicago in Late October”

In our last two newsletters, JHISN invited feedback from our readers through our NYC Prepares for ICE Invasion survey—we thank all of you who participated for your thoughtful responses. While most of you said you had already participated in actions to show opposition to the outrageous abductions by ICE agents, more than a third of you indicated that you are ready to take action for the first time. We applaud you and will continue to use the newsletter, as best we can, to encourage more people to take even more steps. We suggest that readers review the reports on grassroots resistance coming out of Chicago by Dan Sinker and Kyle Kingsbury, a.k.a “Aphyr”—they show what NYC could become when we face ICE attacks like those in Chicago. 

Our survey also asked about the challenges facing our readers and suggestions for what can be done next. Overwhelmingly, our respondents shared that their biggest challenge is not being aware of actions they can take, even as several readers reported on actions they have already done: 

  • Distribute Know Your Rights (KYR) information to businesses and people
  • Make phone calls and complete petitions to politicians 
  • Accompany immigrants to court appointments or participate in court watching
  • Donate to immigrant support organizations

The main challenges our readers reported were a fear of physical risks and that work hours and mobility issues associated with age prevent participation in actions. One person responded simply: “Fear”.

But for every challenge identified, survey respondents also offered two suggestions for future actions. Unawareness can be fixed through greater information sharing. One person suggested that we learn from other groups, such as DIRE (Deportation and Immigration Response Equipo) in New Jersey. Another suggested “Distribute whistles and publicize when/how to use them for rapid response. Like in Los Angeles and in Chicago, there has been a grassroots effort to distribute orange whistles that people can blow if they see ICE.” Another said, “Have a chat group | Patrol the neighborhood | Make noise to alert our neighbors.” 

JHISN has now posted instructions about whistle use as Community Resistance Tools on our blog, borrowing flyer information from South Brooklyn Mutual Aid. If you have been at the Jackson Heights Greenmarket on 34th Ave., between 79th & 80th, you may have seen activists distributing whistles and instructions to our community. Whistles played a role in the recent day-long ICE raid in Corona, and Hands Off NYC has now distributed well over 10,000 whistles throughout the city. Last weekend, JH Indivisible joined with 10 people from the neighborhood (including JHISN members) to distribute ICE Packs to business owners, including a whistle, instructions in English and Spanish for how to use the whistle, and red cards with KYR information. 

Some of our active readers have connected with local ICE Watch groups. Most of these local groups create their own direct messaging communication methods to the immigrant population they serve; only trusted sources, who have been able to verify that ICE action is underway, post to the ICE Watch lists. So, although the federal government demanded Apple and Google remove the ICEBlock app from their app stores, which they did, most local ICE Watch groups were not significant users of that app. 

One of our respondents made a straightforward comment: “I think we all have to help each other out in whatever ways we can.” Some of us can march in weekend events. Some of us can donate money to support immigrant-led groups or the many GoFundMe pages of families seeking support to fight their deportation case (please support the pages of those you know to be local to Jackson Heights).  Some of us can wear a polka dot dress and block an ICE Humvee to slow its progress. Some of us can take successful legal action against discriminatory practices that intimidate immigrants with the threat of deportation. Some of us can tell NYC assembly members to get ICE OUT! Some of us can get ICE barred from operating in Rikers. 

One of us cannot do everything, but many of us, doing what we can in different ways, can make the difference between quiet surrender or effective solidarity.

WHAT CAN WE DO? 
  • Get trained by Hands Off NYC, a coalition of over 50 action-taking groups, to learn Know Your Rights, ICE Watch, and organizing and mobilization strategies. Sign up for their Queens training on Saturday. Dec. 13, 12 – 4 pm.
  • Attend one of the New York Immigration Coalition’s many Neighborhood Defense Training webinars.
  • Attend the monthly Zoom meeting of Jackson Heights Indivisible and get involved with their local actions. 
  • Join the Visibility Brigade (also known as the Rush Hour Resistance) every Wednesday evening from 6 – 7 pm in Jackson Heights.
  • Notify activists if you see ICE: 
  • NYC ICE Watch – DM via Instagram @nycicewatch – use the SALUTE page to quickly format your post
  • Call the Immigrant Defense Project’s NY/NJ ​Rapid Response Network Emergency ICE Raid hotline at 1-800-308-0878, or in New York City,​ call 1-212-725-6422.
  • Prepare yourself, your neighbors, and others by being familiar with Make The Road New York’s Deportation Defense Manual—especially read Part Two: Rapid Response to Raids; appendix D; and appendix F. (Note this is from July 2022, and many things have changed since then).

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 10/25/2025

Posted on October 25, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

Rarely do we start with a set of asks, but extreme times give our newsletter a sense of urgency. So first, please take a few minutes to fill out our JHISN reader survey, and share how you might imagine and participate in neighborhood defense if escalated ICE raids land in central Queens. Thanks to all of you who have already responded.

Next, please check out and circulate this new state government portal to report disturbing or violent actions you witness by ICE and other federal agents in NYC; photos and videos can be uploaded to the site. The public portal was created by the NYS Attorney General one day after the militarized ICE attack on immigrant street vendors—and New Yorkers who came to their defense—on Canal Street this week. 

Our newsletter below looks more closely at the role of citizen immigrants, our own Jackson Heights-based organization DRUM Beats, and immigrant politics more broadly in Zohran Mamdani’s historic campaign for NYC mayor. And we give an update on the precarious situation affecting members of our Nepali community in Queens who have had their Temporary Protective Status terminated by the Trump regime—part of a larger campaign to rip away the legal status of hundreds of thousands of TPS holders nationwide. 

Newsletter highlights: 
  1. Zohran Mamdani: immigrant organizing boosts support for an immigrant mayor
  2. Update on cancellation of TPS for Nepali residents

1. Mamdani’s Campaign Success: Grassroots Immigrant Organizing

“[Trump] just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported. Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city.”—Zohran Mamdani

Jackson Heights group DRUM Beats, the sibling organization of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), was featured by many news organizations this year for its political advocacy work. You may have seen them last weekend at Jackson Heights Farmer’s Market doing henna tattoos, canvassing for Zohran Mamdani, and providing voting registration assistance. They are a major contributing factor to the success of Mamdani’s campaign to become the next, and first Muslim and South Asian, mayor of New York City, and, as he says himself, the first immigrant mayor in generations. DRUM Beats was one of the first grassroots groups to endorse him. Along with CAAAV Voice, the political arm of the CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, South Asian residents were engaged across all five NYC boroughs in support of Mamdani’s campaign. Turnout for the primary saw a 40% increase in South Asian voters for the Democratic Socialist candidate. This came less than a year after many of those same populations appeared to swing right by supporting Trump for president. One reason for Mamdani’s success is his showing up in person in their districts.

30% of the election districts won by Trump in 2024 supported Mamdani in the June 2025 Democratic primary. Many of those districts are in majority Asian neighborhoods. Indeed, across all immigrant-majority neighborhoods, Mamdani won by 7 points. New York Communities for Change has announced that a coalition of organizations representing 50,000 working-class Black and immigrant New Yorkers endorsed Mamdani. Make The Road New York officially endorses him, as does Congressmember Adriano Espaillat, an influential Latino leader for upper Manhattan and the Bronx. He also secured support from the head of the NYPD Bangladeshi American Police Association at a time when 13 other law enforcement organizations had backed the incumbent and former policeman, Mayor Adams, before he dropped out of the race. Despite having higher financial earnings than the working-class immigrants campaigning for Mamdani, many young, well-paid, white collar workers in New York’s tech sector are also giving him their support; they also worry about the affordability of life in the city. 

Mamdani, who worked as a housing counselor with the local immigrant services and housing support organization Chhaya CDC, does not include an “immigration” section on his campaign website. He clearly is a strong supporter of our sanctuary city status, but his platform emphasizes affordability, housing and food security, health, and education as the critical issues facing working-class populations. His policy memo about Trump-Proofing New York is not just about standing up to the ICE invasion, but about protecting all vulnerable New Yorkers from the multiplicitous attacks by Trump. During the first Mayoral debate last week, the topic of immigration and our sanctuary city laws was raised—Mamdani distinguished himself from the others by being more personal and talking of the horrific and ongoing abduction activities conducted by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza.

In private, Trump has indicated he thinks Mamdani is unbeatable. Trump has threatened to withhold federal money from New York if Mamdani is elected Mayor and has already moved forward to cut federal counterterrorism and transit funds. The president has stated that he will arrest Mamdani if he tries to stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors. Trump, along with Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles, also questioned Mamdani’s citizenship. Ogles has been called out for censure for his bigoted and racist speech, including his letter asking the Justice Department to denaturalize and deport Mamdani. (Vickie Paladino, a Queens Council member, who also called for Mamdani to be deported, was met with minimal criticism from city officials and the current mayor.) After Mamdani won the Democratic primary, Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called Border Czar, said that ICE would double up and triple up agents in New York (and this week we watched New Yorkers defend their street vendors from ICE on Canal Street). 

These are the actions of authoritarians who will use any means, even if illegal, to silence and punish the people opposing their anti-democracy political dogma, which is hidden behind a show-of-force facade of nationalism and patriotism. Meanwhile, Mamdani was interviewed on Fox News and stated he will lead this city by building partnerships with people, and that he would do so, “not only in Washington, D.C., but [with] anyone across this country.” He has already proven he can do that by building a multi-asian coalition of support, which has expanded further and made him the current leader in the election polls.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Be inspired by The Queensborough restaurant and organize a fundraising event for your favorite local immigrant-led support organization. After the No Kings March, The Q raised over $600 in cash for NICE (New Immigrant Community Empowerment).
  • Help DRUM Beats continue their political advocacy by making a financial donation. 

2. Brief History of TPS for Nepal, and Its Termination

As of 2023, there were more than 200,000 Nepalis in the US, with almost 17,000 living in Jackson Heights, many with Temporary Protective Status (TPS). As of October 2025, more than 12,000 Nepalis residing in the US–some of them our neighbors here in Queens–have had their legal TPS status abruptly canceled by the Trump administration. 

TPS was created by the Immigration Act of 1990, and grants permission for people to stay in the US if conditions in their country are unsafe from a natural disaster, an armed conflict, or some other unusual and temporary situation making it unsafe for people to return. TPS protects people from deportation, and they can be authorized to work in the US. TPS is granted for 18 months, and at the end of that time it can be extended or revoked for another 6, 12, or 18 months. At least 60 days before the period ends, the Secretary of Homeland Security must review conditions in the target country and publish the decision in the Federal Register.

In April 2015, there was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal, followed by several strong aftershocks. There was extensive damage throughout the country: 755,000 homes were damaged; 9,000 people died and 22,000 were injured. That is why TPS was granted for Nepalis residing in the US until June 2018. Then, in 2017, serious flooding and landslides impeded food production and reconstruction of the earthquake damage. As a result of two separate court cases (Bhattarai v. Nielsen and Ramos v. Nielsen), TPS for Nepal was extended three times until June 2024. 

However, in 2018, Trump revoked the TPS status for Nepal, which was quickly challenged in court. Then, in 2023, DHS under Biden rescinded that termination and extended TPS until June 2025. On June 6, 2025, DHS Secretary Noem terminated TPS for Nepal, effective August 5, 2025. She claimed “there are notable improvements in environmental disaster preparedness and response capacity, as well as substantial reconstruction from the earthquake’s destruction such that there is no longer a disruption of living conditions and Nepal is able to handle adequately the return of its nationals.”

In July 2025, the National TPS Alliance and individual plaintiffs with TPS status challenged Secretary Noem’s actions as arbitrary and capricious, failing to provide the required 60-day notice, and violating the equal protection portion of the Fifth Amendment because the motivation was partially racial animus. On July 31, US District Judge Trina Thompson granted the plaintiffs’ motion to postpone the cancellation. The court ordered that TPS remain in effect until at least November 18, 2025. But on August 20, 2025, the District court’s stay was overridden by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing TPS cancellation for Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua to go forward. 

Meanwhile, in September 2025, there was a political crisis in Nepal when economic dysfunction and disillusioned youth led to widespread protests, government buildings burned, a national curfew, and finally the installation of a new president, Sushila Karki, the first woman president of Nepal.

It is not clear if that political crisis will have any bearing on the status of Nepalis in the US. With the removal of work authorization and the threat of deportation the Nepali community is in danger.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Make a donation to our local immigrant-led organization Adhikaar which represents the Nepali-speaking community. 

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 09/21/2025

Posted on September 21, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

In just the past few days, news that can knock you over has reached our door. JHISN learned that ICE snatched a well-known and beloved waiter in Jackson Heights on September 3. According to the GoFundMe campaign for Dino, he was “chained hand-to-feet, and taken by bus and plane to several prisons and detention centers, always chained up, going for days without any food, from New York to New Jersey to Texas, until he was finally left with the Mexican immigration officials at the border.” His situation is similar to tens of thousands of US immigrants attacked by the Trump regime, but recognizing his face and benefiting directly from his labor makes his inhumane incarceration and deportation a shock and a wake-up call. It can happen here. It is happening here. 

Dino, outside the Queensboro restaurant where he worked in Jackson Heights.

Our newsletter, in keeping with these grim times, reports on the federal government’s unprecedented attack on immigrant children, including the arrest of students and young neighbors here in Queens. And we offer a wide-ranging political analysis of the current deportation machine, accompanied by a locally-focused survey for our readers about what you hope to do as ICE violence against immigrants closes in. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Immigrant children detained and caged
  2. Resisting ICE is crucial – how will Jackson Heights resist?

1. ICE Wages War on Immigrant Children

This is a really tough year for young immigrants in the US.

“We now regularly hear reports from members whose friends and classmates have disappeared after routine court appearances, and our members are afraid to go to court, school, and even leave their homes out of fear they will be detained by ICE. No child should have to choose between their safety and their right to due process.”–Beth Baltimore, deputy director of The Door’s Legal Services Center 

The dramatic spectacle of the Trump regime attempting to deport, in the dead of night over Labor Day weekend, 76 Guatemalan children who had come to the US alone and were living in shelters or with foster care families, only intensified fears for immigrant children across the US. Lawsuits were immediately filed and the removals were temporarily stopped. Missing from many news reports was the fact that in July Guatemalan government representatives toured US detention facilities.To avoid the possibility that any detained Guatemalan children who turned 18 would be sent to adult detention centers, the Guatemalan government said they would accept “all unaccompanied minors, who wanted to return to Guatemala voluntarily.” On September 10 in federal court the Department of Justice abandoned its claim that either Guatemalan parents or children had requested to be reunited and stated it actually had no evidence for that allegation. On September 18, a federal judge blocked the children’s removal for the foreseeable future. But the incident shines light on the plight of immigrant children now in the crosshairs of a deportation machine running wild.

Although Trump’s deportation plan claims to focus on “the worst of the worst,” it seems more like an assembly line plan of “last in, first out.” Those who entered the US without papers in the last 2 years are most likely to face expedited removal. Not only are they detained, they are also shunted around to as many as four different detention facilities before either being deported or released to face further immigration hearings.

Back in May 2023, the Biden  Administration expanded the digital CBP One app to allow immigrants to make appointments for asylum hearings before entering the country. People could stay for 2 years and work legally. However, Trump cancelled the program in January 2025 and invalidated 30,000 appointments. All entries using CBP One became grounds for removal. Now when people who used the app show up in court for legally arranged required hearings, ICE agents waiting outside courtrooms snatch them immediately, even if they have received new court dates.

Several minors in New York city and state have been caught in this process: 50 children younger than 18 have been detained by ICE at their legally required check-ins and 38 have been deported. Also, some New York high school students have been detained. Here are details of some cases.

In May, Dylan Lopez Contreras, a 20-year-old student at ELLIS Prep, was the first public school student detained by ICE at his scheduled hearing. He arrived from Venezuela in 2024 and had permission to live and work here through Biden’s CBP One program while he went through the asylum application process. On June 16, a federal judge reinstated Dylan’s pending asylum case and pursuit of protections under the Special Juvenile Immigration Status (SIJS). Dylan spent two months in ICE detention. He’s represented by New York Legal Assistance Group. 

On June 4, Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza, a 19-year-old 11th grader at Grover Cleveland High School, was the second known New York City public school student apprehended by ICE. He and his family arrived from Ecuador in March 2024 and applied for asylum. Derlis was detained for a month in Texas and finally released on July 18 so he can return to school and continue his asylum case.

In June, Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema, a 20-year-old high school student, was arrested. She arrived from Ecuador in May 2024. According to her attorneys, at her June asylum hearing, the immigration judge had set a court date for March 2026. But she was arrested by ICE officers outside the courtroom anyway and sent to Louisiana. She was released in July after Make the Road New York sued on her behalf.

Also in June, Oliver Mata Velazquez, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from Venezuela living in Buffalo was unlawfully arrested by ICE agents while attending a mandated court hearing and then fast-tracked for deportation. Oliver had legal entry in September 2024 via CBP One, has no criminal history, and complied with all government orders when applying for US citizenship. He was released in August and able to reunite with his family and community as his asylum case proceeded after US District Judge Lawrence Vilardo ordered ICE to release him, saying,

“Mata Velasquez followed all the rules. On the other hand, the government changed the rules by fiat, applied them retroactively, and pulled the rug out from under Mata Velasquez and many like him who tried to do things the right way.”

New York Civil Liberties Union, African Communities Together, and The Door are hoping Judge Vilardo’s decision will help others kidnapped by ICE. “These policies are unlawful,” the lawsuit argues. “Such arrests chill access to the courts and impede the fair administration of justice.” An initial hearing is scheduled for October 10.

In August, Martha, a Jackson Heights mother with four children (two daughters 6 and 16, two sons 19 and 21), took her 6-year-old and 19-year-old to their required immigration hearing and all three were detained. Martha and two children arrived from Ecuador in December 2022. Their application for  asylum was denied, and an attempt to appeal failed because paperwork was filed too late. Martha and the 6-year-old were deported to Ecuador; 19-year-old Manuel is in detention in New Jersey.

On August 9, Roger Iza, a 15-year-old Manhattan high school student, and his father, Edison Iza, who arrived in 2023 from Ecuador, had their asylum application denied. They had filed without an attorney. Roger was enrolled in school, but they were arrested by ICE at a required check-in in New York. After being transported to a series of out-of-state hotels, where they had no access to phones or the internet, they were deported to Ecuador on August 14. 

On August 4, Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, a 20-year-old Brooklyn student from Guinea, was detained at his hearing at 26 Federal Plaza.  He’s the third NY city high school student to be detained at a required hearing. He arrived in January 2024. Before he was arrested, he had been released by the Biden administration, enrolled in high school, completed a training program to become a security guard, joined the Audubon Society and enrolled in a culinary internship. His teachers and NY City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos have expressed support for him.

No arrests have yet been made inside NY City schools, and principals and teachers are trying to reassure parents and students that it’s safe to attend classes. But many students are afraid to go to school. In addition, immigrants who are victims of crimes or abuse are afraid to contact police and/or appear in court as witnesses and many others are afraid to get necessary medical care.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Resisting the Deportation Tsunami–Invitation to Our Reader Survey

Multiple legal cases have tried to slow down the Trump regime’s trampling of long-standing asylum laws and the supposedly sacred Constitution. Court decisions have gone back and forth, but the trend is clear: they can’t be counted on for relief. In May, a Massachusetts District Court ruled that immigrants must be offered asylum hearings, and must have 15 days to contest a threat of deportation to a third country. But in June, a Supreme Court order put that ruling on hold, allowing third country deportations to continue. In July, a federal judge ruled that ICE must stop racially profiling Latinos for indiscriminate arrests. In September, an “emergency intervention” from Supreme Court “justices” overturned that injunction. This month, a California federal judge ordered that Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans and Haitians must be restored immediately—but the administration stalled and refused to comply, causing widespread panic. Now the Ninth Circuit Court has recently ruled that the regime can and in fact already has terminated TPS for our Nepalis, along with Hondurans and Nicaraguans. Lawsuits by the National TPS Coalition and the ACLU attempting to restore TPS are ongoing.

Despite the lack of a united, strategic Left and progressive movement nationwide, angry people in many localities are resisting. In particular, there is a spreading neighborhood-based movement against ICE and mass deportation. In Rochester, more than 200 local residents showed up to disrupt an immigration raid causing ICE agents to flee the neighborhood with four slashed tires. Worcester residents surrounded ICE agents and delayed their arrest of an immigrant mother. In Nashville, an ICE arrest was prevented by angry neighbors. There are many other examples of community intervention: in San Diego, Minneapolis. San Francisco, Huntington Park, Waltham, Los Angeles and many other places.

JHISN has been talking among ourselves about the likely arrival of large-scale ICE attacks in our neighborhoods in the near future, and how to respond. We don’t think we can rely on the midterm elections, or wait and hope that Trumpian fascism will fall apart on its own. Legal and legislative attempts at the national, state and city levels to try to rein in ICE are important, but not sufficient. JHISN believes there has to be a local response by local residents, showing our opposition and outrage at attacks on immigrants, and countering ICE’s secret police outrages. We must do our best to make ICE a pariah.

 We consider our 550 newsletter subscribers to be an informal local network of people in solidarity with immigrants. What role can we play in resisting ICE? Would you like to be informed when ICE shows up on our streets? Would you be interested in reporting ICE’s presence to the whole neighborhood? Would you be part of a rapid response network to protest and defend immigrant neighbors threatened with deportation? We’d very much like to hear your thoughts…to share information with us, please complete our short survey.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Complete the JHISN survey and add your thoughts to our community’s insight on resisting ICE actions in our neighborhood.

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN.