Tag: Grace Meng

JHISN Newsletter 01/27/2024

Posted on January 27, 2024 by - News

Dear friends,

For the first time, our newsletter today offers readers an imaginary ‘report’—inviting us to collectively wonder what our communities could be if immigrant justice for all were in place; what New York City could be if billionaires paid their share and immigrants, asylum seekers, and all of us lived in an everyday world of economic justice. Imagine that?! We follow-up with a report on the very real recent accomplishments and activism of three local immigrant-led groups: Adhikaar, Make the Road NY, and DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving). 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. What If? immigrant justice came true
  2. Updates from Adhikaar, Make the Road NY, and DRUM

1. Imagine

“You may say that I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.”  —John Lennon, 1971

Imagine a New York that actually welcomed and appreciated immigrants. It’s easy if you try.

Imagine fully funded government programs offering work at union wages to immigrants and residents alike. Imagine massive recruitment and training programs tailored to rapidly expand public services, transit, and housing. To create universal health and elder care systems. To rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. (Like the storm sewers that keep backing up in Elmhurst, flooding our neighbors.) Imagine how this process would strengthen households, boost consumer spending and help small businesses prosper.

What if we didn’t let greed and income inequality shackle our dreams? Imagine that some long-overdue tax dollars from the rich were used to help immigrants to thrive, allowing them to lift up our society in turn. 

Imagine restoring the federal tax brackets that were in effect from 1953 to 1961—during the Republican Eisenhower administration. The top tax bracket then was 91% instead of 37% like it is today. (AOC has put forward a related proposal: that income over $10 million should be taxed at 70%.) Imagine that New York State and City also started to tax multi-milllionaire wealth and end tax breaks for large developers, as several elected officials suggest? What kind of social programs could that money make possible?

Imagine allowing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, and recognizing all the contributions they make. What if those of us who have legal status started to fully value and adopt the skills, knowledge, energy, and courage that immigrants bring with them?

What if we followed our own laws for people seeking asylum, upholding our commitments under the 1951 Refugee Convention?

Imagine how it would feel for this country and our city to embody values of equality and generosity. To offer, through our welcome to migrants, some partial healing for the harm the US has caused through colonialism and covert interventions in Central and South America. Wouldn’t this transition also be a powerful benefit to our entire social wellbeing: to the cultural, economic, moral, and emotional health of our communities?

Looked at from this point of view, the “migrant crisis” currently trumpeted by the billionaire class and their captive politicians is actually a manufactured crisis of income inequality, racist scapegoating, and austerity politics. As for those of us fighting for justice: we should never allow our politics—necessarily a politics of opportunity—to be held back by a crisis of imagination.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. News from Local Immigrant Justice Groups

Three of our local groups promoting the rights of immigrants have reported on their latest work. 

Adhikaar celebrated New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signing into law on January 8, the NJ Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. (New York has passed laws protecting domestic workers in 2010 and 2021.) In 2017, Adhikaar began organizing in New Jersey to improve labor conditions for workers. In 2021, along with a broad coalition including NDWA (National Domestic Workers Alliance), they were ready to introduce the Workers’ Rights bill. And now it is law. The bill provides domestic workers: 

  • Minimum wage protections
  • Protection from employer retaliation
  • Guaranteed paid rest/breaks 
  • Advance notice of termination
  • Written contract from employers

Adhikaar thanks all the members who worked on this issue as well as the spokespeople who publicly shared their stories of pain and joy, and everyone who stuck by this campaign even during the pandemic.

Make the Road NY reported that on January 17, members participated in a rally at the US Capitol calling on Congress to prioritize families and immigrants when drafting the budget. Advocates joined together before the expected January 19th deadline to urge Congress to fight for our communities and families by opposing: 

  • Any budget compromise that channels funding to punitive and destructive border policies.
  • Any budget compromise that cuts funding below the levels set in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
  • Any poison pill policy riders that Republicans try to add to appropriations bills.

Speakers at the rally included Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and Rep. Cori Bush. On January 18, Congress passed a stopgap bill to fund the government until March, pushing real budget decisions down the road, as usual. Be sure that MTRNY will be back to voice its concerns.

DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving) has continued to pressure Congresswoman Grace Meng. On January 12, over 100 of Meng’s constituents joined a virtual meeting to urge her to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine war. So far she has refused. Perhaps this is the reason: Her largest source of funding is AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee), with over $82,000 in contributions to her campaign. DRUM’s executive director stated that Meng’s refusal signals her disregard for certain constituents, especially those who are Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, or anti-Zionist Jewish people.

On January 24, DRUM rallied at Hostos Community College during Mayor Adam’s State of the City address. They reject the mayor’s harmful policies and cuts to essential programs and services like libraries, schools, pre-K, and CUNY—as he and his administration continue to endlessly fund the NYPD. The rally was part of DRUM’s support for Council Members Shahana Hanif, Tiffany Cabán, and Chi Ossé who lost committee appointments because of their rejection of the Mayor’s budget proposals.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • If you are able, donate to any of these local immigrant justice groups to support their ongoing work: Adhikaar; and Make the Road NY; and DRUM.

 

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 12/09/2023

Posted on December 9, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

 As we write, it is day 62 of Israel’s ferocious bombardment of Gaza, following Hamas’ shocking attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers on October 7. Almost 70% of Gazans are UN-recognized refugees, including survivors and their descendants of Israel’s mass expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands and homes in 1948, the founding year of the state of Israel. This historic mass displacement of Palestinians is known as the Nakba in Arabic—meaning “the Catastrophe.” At the time of the Nakba, the vast majority of Jewish citizens in the new Israeli state had lived in Palestine for three years or less; many of these new arrivals were themselves Jewish refugees from the horrors of World War II. What has come to be called the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” is profoundly about migration, dispossession, state terrorism, and violence against refugees in the past century.

We devote this newsletter to the committed actions of one local immigrant justice group that has taken up the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. We support DRUM’s urgent demand.

1. DRUM calls for Ceasefire Now

“As peoples with histories of colonization, genocide and displacement, our hearts are heavy. We grieve for our siblings in Palestine …. As we marched, we carried a sheet with a fraction of the names of children killed due to the occupation. Members carrying the sheet shared that they felt like they were carrying the weight of the children with them.” –DRUM Facebook post (Nov. 4, 2023)

“The pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell.” —Jan Egeland, Secretary General, Norwegian Refugee Council (Dec. 6, 2023)

DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) activated its membership almost immediately after Israel’s most recent military assault began—the sixth war on Gaza conducted by Israel since its blockade of the occupied territory in 2007. As a Queens-based group fighting for economic justice and political power in working-class South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, DRUM sees deep ties between the histories of colonialism among its members, and the colonial violence experienced by Palestinians for more than 70 years.

DRUM’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation are thus a form of global solidarity work, carried out through local action. In support of the October 18 National Day of Action, DRUM appealed to NYC leaders to “protect Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and all students against racist attacks,” as progressive Jews occupied the US capitol and high school students across the country walked out of classes demanding an immediate ceasefire. The same day, DRUM members and allies rallied with the Pakistani American Political Committee, urging local Congresswoman Grace Meng to join calls for a ceasefire, and warning that “Pakistani Americans will not support you if you continue to support Israel’s genocide.”

On November 2, DRUM and dozens of other constituents delivered petitions to Meng’s office in Queens signed by more than 800 people demanding that she support a full ceasefire, and vote against additional military financing of Israel. Activists recited names of murdered Gazans, and constituents—including children and elders—put names on sticky notes and left them on Meng’s office window.

Two weeks later, DRUM co-organized a major event at Congresswoman Meng’s Flushing office. Around two hundred constituents gathered and made Salaat al Gha’ib (Muslim funeral prayer in-absentia) for the thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza and the West Bank by Israeli carpet bombings and assassinations. This public mourning of dead children, elders, teachers, parents, journalists, health workers, and aid workers was followed by dua (supplication) seeking peace, justice, and liberation for the people of Palestine. A program of invited speakers reminded Meng that Israel is funded and armed by our US tax dollars, and the additional billions in US aid to Israel that she supports make her complicit in the genocide being carried out with those weapons and monies.

After the program, constituents representing Latin, Korean, Jewish, Muslim, Afghan, and Arab communities made an altar in memory of those killed by Israel.

As of this writing, Congresswoman Meng has still refused to publicly support a ceasefire. On Friday, December 8, DRUM members joined other Queens residents for a mourners vigil and #CeaseFireNow rally outside her Flushing office.

Knowing that “the US support of genocide and war in Palestine make our communities more vulnerable to violence,” DRUM also organized a recent training in Richmond Hill for members to talk about their experiences of feeling threatened or being attacked. In collaboration with @nonviolentpeaceforce and @soaroverhate, DRUM shared skills to effectively intervene when seeing someone in trouble. And participants actively practiced these non-violent tactics to strengthen community safety for South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers. 

 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 03/11/2023

Posted on March 11, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

 While it did not make many headlines this week, hundreds of excluded workers marched across the Manhattan Bridge on Monday, demanding the state budget fund unemployment assistance for all workers, including undocumented immigrants. Our first article also covers an under-reported story: the recent legal challenge to new city district maps that split the vibrant South Asian community in South Queens into three separate districts. Our second article takes a deeper look behind a news story on immigration that actually is—for the moment—getting lots of attention: the systematic labor exploitation of unaccompanied child migrants. 

 Newsletter highlights:
  1. New City Council maps disenfranchise Asians in Queens
  2. Child migrants funneled into exploitative jobs

1. Lawsuit Challenges City Council Redistricting

“Despite the protections of the NYC Charter and our warnings throughout the redistricting process, the council map carved up the community and muffled their voices, continuing our city’s painful history of dividing, marginalizing, and disenfranchising communities of color.”—Jerry Vattamala, Democracy Program Director of the AALDEF

Last weekend, just before the petitioning process began for the NY City Council primaries in June, many Queens elected officials marched up Skillman Avenue in the St. Pats for All parade. Celebrating the inclusivity of Queens, they walked in the Sunnyside parade that was created 23 years ago in response to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Manhattan refusing entry to LGBTQ+ marchers. Congresswoman Grace Meng reminded the Queens crowd in attendance that the Irish who came as refugees were not always welcomed with open arms, nor with equitable laws and policies. And Councilwoman Marjorie Velazquez raised cheers from the crowd as she said “Immigrants make America, America.”

The City Council electeds who were marching may have an additional hurdle to overcome this year: petitioning for the primaries may be delayed by a lawsuit brought by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) on behalf of South Asian community members including DRUM (Desis, Rising Up and Moving), our local immigrant workers’ organization. The lawsuit charges that 2022 redistricting decisions “unlawfully separat[ed] the Asian community” by carving up south Queens and “dilut[ing] the community’s voting strength.” The lawsuit calls for altered council maps that would create a new “opportunity district” for Asian American voters in the Queens areas of Richmond Hill and Ozone Park, and for a halt to petitioning until the district lines are settled. Judge Leslie Stroth ruled for a hearing last week and then recused herself from the case because she is also up for election as a candidate for the Supreme Court.

This lawsuit follows substantial debates, which began in November 2021, about redistricting maps that produced electoral districts that egregiously diminished the strength of Black, Asian, and Latino communities and voters. The New York City Charter says redistricting plans must ensure “the fair and effective representation of the racial and language minority groups in New York City,” protected by the 1965 United States Voting Rights Act. However, as Fulvia Vargas-De León, a lawyer with Latino Justice, noted, “Redistricting is often the silent voter suppressor.” 

This is not a new issue. Thirty years ago a coalition was formed to create districts that accurately reflect demographic shifts in New York populations: the outcome was a set of “Unity Maps”. Many immigrant advocacy organizations, including the AALDEF, put their support behind the Unity Maps and presented them to the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) as examples of how redistricting could be non-partisan and be an accurate reflection of the minority populations in those areas. DRUM created a town hall series with the APA Voice (Asian Pacific American Voting and Organizing to Increase Civic Engagement), South Queens Women’s March, and the Caribbean Equality Project to oppose the redistricting that split the communities in Richmond Hill and Ozone Park. According to Patrick Stegemoeller, group attorney for the AALDEF, the Unity Maps were “ignored, in favor of a final plan that prioritized surrounding white-majority communities.” 

This is not the first lawsuit for this election cycle: the Our City Our Vote law, allowing 800,000 eligible immigrants to vote in municipal elections, was passed by NYC voters in 2022. However, plaintiffs in Staten Island alleged the law was “adopted with impermissible racial intent.” They claimed Black citizen voters would be negatively impacted when more “Hispanic foreign citizens” vote: Justice Ralph Prozio of Staten Island agreed, and struck down the new law. The city is currently appealing that ruling and it is unlikely we will see that case resolved for the 2023 election cycle.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

2. Unaccompanied Migrant Children: Alone and Exploited

When the New York Times story about exploited migrant children dropped on February 2, it was a bombshell. The Times reported that in the past two years, 250,000 unaccompanied minors have entered the US; many of them are “ending up in dangerous jobs that violate labor laws—including in factories that make products for well-known brands.” Some work 12- or 14-hour shifts, while still trying to go to school. Dozens have been killed or seriously injured on the job. The heartbreaking Times article—based on interviews and stunning photography of more than 100 migrant child workers in 20 states—offered readers an emotional testament, and created a political sensation.

By the very next day, lawmakers in Congress were “clamoring for action.” The Department of Labor solemnly declared that it “takes these egregious violations very seriously and investigates every child labor complaint they receive and acts to hold employers accountable.” They promised a new “Interagency Taskforce to Combat Child Labor Exploitation” and a host of bureaucratic measures to beef up child protection and labor law enforcement policies.

It was as if the politicians didn’t know that exploitation of migrant children was happening. But as recently as last year, Reuters ran a series of articles about underage refugees working in the Hyundai-Kia supply chain and in poultry factories. And immigrant justice advocates have been urgently raising the predicament of young refugees for years. What the Times story accomplished was to give some of these oppressed children a face, and a voice. It forced the shameful treatment of unaccompanied minors into the mainstream of political discussion—at least temporarily. 

From the point of view of immigrant justice, two issues stand out. The first is that the federal government, under Biden, is still separating children from their families at the southern border, although in new ways. By turning away almost all adult refugees under various cruel pretexts, in violation of international law, the US is forcing desperate refugee families to split up and send their children North alone—hoping that they can survive, and maybe help the family survive economically. This isn’t the openly racist carnival of the Trump years, which often targeted young children. It’s more of a cold-blooded unpublicized assembly line, trapping adult and infant refugees in war zones or fetid, dangerous encampments in Mexico, while rapidly processing tweens and teens to be sent all over the US. 

The second issue is that the immigration system is effectively organized to funnel young asylum seekers into labor exploitation. The US government doesn’t just fail to provide these children with a basic income, legal representation, or services after they leave preliminary detention-–it doesn’t even know where many of them are. States and cities also do little to help. It is the volunteer sponsor-–often a distant relative or friend of a friend-–who is supposed to “provide for the physical and mental well-being of the child, including but not limited to, food, shelter, clothing, education, medical care and other services as needed.” But this isn’t realistic. As the Times story makes clear, almost everyone in and around the system that “processes” unaccompanied minors expects the children to work and figures that into their decisions. 

Young people crossing the border are usually desperate to make money. They may owe thousands of dollars to smugglers who brought them here. They are risking everything with the goal of sending financial help to their endangered families. Their sponsors, who are often low-income people themselves, may expect the children they sponsor to contribute to their own upkeep. Some sponsors traffick the labor of migrant children, treating it like a business. On the other hand, school-age asylum seekers aren’t allowed to work legally because of “child protection” laws. This contradiction forces minors into the shadow economy and leaves them at the mercy of capitalism’s most unscrupulous profiteers.

And so there are thirteen-year-olds with fake IDs washing sheets in the back rooms of hotels, and exhausted fifteen-year-olds picking tomatoes all day in the sun or cleaning slaughterhouses with toxic chemicals all night. Young teenagers wait on the curb at day labor sites, competing for hard day labor in construction. As the Times story continues to reverberate nationally, we should be aware that thousands of unaccompanied child immigrants are living and working all around us in New York State. And we should always remember the local tragedy of Edwin Ajacalon, who migrated alone from Guatemala to Brooklyn at the age of 14. Edwin was riding his delivery bike in Brooklyn when he was mowed down by a speeding hit and run driver in a BMW. A whole family’s hopes suffered a huge blow with his death. The driver was never charged.

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 12/31/2022

Posted on December 31, 2022 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As the year 2022 comes to a close, we invite our readers to look back on some of the recent activism of local immigrant groups, and look ahead to the ongoing struggle to dismantle the US detention and deportation system. We feature the recent activities of three vibrant organizations—NICE, DRUM, and Make the Road NY—that each have a base here in central Queens. And we report on what a ‘true’ alternative to detention might be while remembering that, as the new year approaches, over 23,000 immigrants are currently in detention, and over 377,000 people are being monitored under ICE’s ‘Alternative to Detention’ (ATD) programs.

As we usher in 2023, we wish you joy, and community, and collective imaginings of a more just world for all.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Year-end activities of local immigrant-led groups
  2. Implementing real alternatives to detention

1. Local Immigrant Justice Groups@End of Year 2022

As the calendar year turns, we take a look at three immigrant-led groups based here in Central Queens, and report back on some of their recent activism and advocacy. 

NICE (New Immigrant Community Empowerment) held a demonstration with City Council member Shekar Krishnan in front of City Hall on November 22, advocating for more resources to fight against wage theft. Undocumented workers are especially vulnerable to not being fully paid for their work, or not being paid at all. 

NICE’s commitment to protecting workers includes their support for Carlos’ Law. Named for Carlos Moncayo, a 22-year-old undocumented Ecuadorian construction worker killed on the job in 2015, the bill was proposed in 2018 and passed the NY State Legislature in August. It would raise the maximum fine for criminal liability for worker injury or death from $10,000 to no less than $500,000, or, in the case of a misdemeanor, no less than $300,000. The bill has been sitting unsigned on the desk of Governor Kathy Hochul, even though three more workers were killed this November, for a total of at least 24 construction worker deaths this year. Over 80% of construction workers who die in New York are employed at non-union work sites, and immigrant construction workers are disproportionately vulnerable to dying on the job. 

On December 13, members of NICE together with CUFFH (Churches United for Fair Housing), CASA, Make the Road NY and Center for Popular Democracy rallied in Washington, DC, to demand climate, health, economic and immigration justice. NICE met with six different congressional offices: Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Grace Meng, and Nadya Velazquez.

The Omnibus federal budget bill recently approved by Congress allots $500,000 to NICE.

DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) joined more than 100 organizations on November 15 calling on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to designate Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and Special Student Status (SSR) for Pakistani nationals working and studying in the US. The devastating floods of 2022 have created ongoing health and economic crises in Pakistan, with at least 33 million people (1 in 7 Pakistanis) directly affected by the disaster. No safe return of Pakistani immigrants to their country of origin is currently possible. Support TPS and SSR for Pakistani by signing this petition. 

DRUM’s director of organizing, Kazi Fouzia Kabir, joined Grassroots Global Justice Alliance’s delegation in November at the United Nation’s COP27 meetings in Egypt. Kabir works to connect with civil and government representatives from countries that DRUM’s members come from, in order to coordinate their demands for climate justice.

On November 22 and again on December 7, DRUM participated in a Care Not Cuts rally at City Hall demanding that Mayor Adams protect city services for working-class New Yorkers—threatened by Adams’ proposed budget cuts in fiscal 2023—and roll back the Mayor’s dangerous plan to forcibly detain New Yorkers deemed by the NYPD to have a mental illness. The proposed budget cuts and hiring freeze will affect vital city services, including a proposed cut to the extension of the universal 3-K Child Care Program. DRUM is fighting for housing, childcare, education, and care, instead of cuts and criminalization.  

DRUM is also working with ICE Out! NYC, Make the Road NY, African Communities Together (ACT), and other immigrant justice organizations to advocate for three crucial bills being considered by the City Council. The proposed legislation would further restrict the city from funneling people into ICE custody and detention by: ensuring accountability and compliance with existing detainer laws; limiting the Department of Corrections from communicating with ICE about a person’s release; and limiting the NYPD’s ability to hold a person for ICE.

Make the Road NY’s (MTRNY) Trans Immigrant Project (TrIP) held a vigil on November 19 in Corona Plaza to honor the lives of trans and gender-diverse siblings lost in 2022 and previous years. They renewed their commitment to protecting those who are still with us, and the generations that come after us.

MTRNY also held a series of Town Halls for members to meet with Queens legislators ahead of the 2023 legislative session. The November 16 Town Hall included State Senator Jessica Ramos, and Assembly members Catalina Cruz, Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Juan Ardila, and Steven Raga. Two more events were held on November 17 in Brooklyn and November 29 in Westchester.

On November 16, MTRNY launched its 2023-24 Respect and Dignity for All state policy platform to address the persistent inequities across NY State and improve the lives of immigrant, Black, and brown families. Proposals include:

  • Permanent inclusion in the unemployment system for all. Excluded No More.
  • Ensure immigrant healthcare access. Coverage for All.
  • Pass Good Cause Eviction legislation to bring renter’s rights to tenants in smaller buildings.
  • Pass the Solutions Not Suspensions Act for youth.
  • Pass the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act

The just-passed federal budget allots $400,000 to MTRNY which will help them implement their policies.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Sign the petition supporting TPS for Pakistani immigrants.
  • If you are able, make a donation to any of the local immigrant activist and advocacy groups mentioned here–check their website for donation information!

2. The Real Alternative to Detention is No Detention

“The point is not to provide an alternative to electronic monitoring, an alternative to probation …  and so on—but to look instead at the actual problems we face, and to take lessons from projects around the country that are addressing these problems in effective ways.” –Prison by Any Other Name, by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law (p.241)

Immigrant advocates including Mijente, Detention Watch Network (DWN), the National Immigrant Justice Center, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops with the Center for Migration Studies have each issued reports opposing ISAP (Intensive Supervision Appearance Program), an Alternative to Detention (ATD) program run by ICE agents. They highlight the many problems of ISAP, and the value of community-based support programs as true alternatives to detention. ISAP, launched in 2004, is run by prison corporations and has been renewed four times despite sustained criticism by immigrants and activists. 

The government has piloted a few community-based ATD programs. In 2000, the Vera Institute for Justice worked with the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) to run one such ATD called the Appearance Assistance Program (AAP). The AAP was a break from the carceral approach to immigration policy which ramped up after Cuban and Haitian refugees arrived on Florida’s shores in the late 1980s, prompting Congress to amend the Immigration and Naturalization Act to require mandatory detention for immigrants with specific criminal convictions. The association of immigration with criminality was expanded by the 1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) which increased the scope of mandatory detention and captured legal permanent residents as well. 

Despite the AAP’s non-carceral success, with 90% of participants attending their court hearings, the aftermath of September 11, 2001, reconfigured immigration policy as a national security issue. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002 prioritized immigrant surveillance, deportation, and the escalation of detention. ISAP became the primary ATD program supported by DHS, which leverages smartphone and facial recognition software, ankle monitors, and telephone check-ins with ICE agents with a focus on discipline and supervision, not community support.

The chart below shows the increase over time of funding allocations to ATD programs, including ISAP, as daily enrollment in those programs grew, spiking at almost 225% under President Biden in one year. The chart clearly shows government spending is not reduced with ATDs because they continue to spend on detention. The data reveal that ATDs like ISAP are not a real alternative, but an addition to detention. The chart also illustrates how bed quotas in private detention facilities keep detention costs consistently high even though the actual detention population recently dropped due to the unjustified use of Title 42 as an immigration enforcement tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some claim that the ISAP program is better than detention as a more humane way to approach the problem of immigration management. Participants in the program have agreed that given a choice between detention or not, then ISAP is preferred. But the report Tracked and Trapped: Experiences from ICE’s Digital Prisons shows the direct human impact that ISAP has on people (not by comparison with detention): 

  • When there are problems with the technology, ICE case officers will not blame the technology, instead punishment will fall on the participant. Because the ISAP program is run by a prison subsidiary company, the threat of detention is immediate for non-compliance.
  • Smartphone monitoring data constantly tracks people with no restrictions on how that data will be used. In fact, ISAP data was used in 2019 to assist in a Mississippi ICE raid to arrest 680 immigrant workers in meat processing plants, 300 of whom were later released. 
  • Ankle monitors have notably caused irritation, bleeding, or even electro-shocked the wearer—possibly because they are being worn for over 10 times longer than the intended length of time. 
  • 97% of people surveyed reported feeling social stigma or isolation, and two-thirds reported job-related issues. 
  • Black immigrants are given the ankle shackle twice as often as others. 

Detention Watch Network criticizes these ATD approaches as Alternatives to Freedom, but there are programs that can be community-based true alternatives, and ISAP is not the sole approach that ICE takes with ATDs. Parole allows people to live freely while they navigate their immigration cases—95% of Ukrainians were granted this option to escape the war with Russia, but only 11% of non-Ukranians were given this option during the same timeframe. In January 2016, ICE set up the Family Case Management Program (FCMP), an ATD without punitive and restrictive measures which did not use ankle monitors. The program successfully maximized court hearing attendance and ICE appointments. It was also significantly cheaper than the detention costs at just $38 each day per family unit instead of $320 per detainee per day. President Trump chose to eliminate this successful program after just one year. He also adjusted the Risk Classification Assessment (RCA) algorithm used to advise if someone can be released from detention and placed into an ATD—as a result, the continued detention of low-risk individuals rose from around 50% to 97%. When later seen by a human case officer, about 40% of people were released on bond. In 2020 the Bronx Defenders and the ACLU brought a lawsuit against ICE for adjusting RCA as a violation of due process and federal immigration law that calls for “individualized determinations” about a person’s release. 

Much immigrant justice work has tried to ensure that legal representation is provided to protect due process. However, as with the criminal justice system, the guarantee of due process does not always lead to a better outcome, which would be no detention and no deportation. But there are community programs working independently of the government that offer prime examples of successful ATDs: the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, NYIFUP, is a coalition of groups with a process that strives for a different outcome from all the rest. It resulted in a 48% non-deportation outcome–a different measure than ensuring participation in court appearances and ICE meetings. That is a real alternative with a valuable outcome for immigrants.

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 08/06/2022

Posted on August 6, 2022 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

Greetings as deep summer hits and heats us all. It’s been a pleasure for us to leaflet—when it’s not too hot!—at the JH Farmer’s Market and get to meet and talk to some of our newsletter readers. The newsletter is now regularly translated into Spanish and available on our JHISN website – Aquí va un saludo caluroso y comprometido a nuestros lectores en español!

We are looking for a volunteer to help us manage our JHISN Twitter feed. Please contact us at info@jhimmigrantsolidarity.org if you are interested.

This week’s newsletter takes a look at the threat to immigrant electoral power from the proposed re-mapping of City Council districts. We then report on the latest legislative move to create a legal pathway to permanent residence for millions of undocumented folks in the US.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Outcry over proposed NYC district maps
  2. #UpdateTheRegistry to unlock green card status for millions

1. Proposed New City Council Maps Unleash Anger in Queens and Brooklyn

Proposed revisions in City Council district lines triggered by the 2020 Census are igniting a storm of controversy among immigrant justice activists. The redrawn maps submitted by the NYC Districting Commission on July 15 were greeted with accusations that they fractured and weakened the voting power of immigrant communities in violation of the City Charter.

Revising district lines is a complex task, requiring the Commission to meet manifold legal mandates at the federal, state, and local levels. The US Constitution requires all legislative districts to have a roughly equal population. Since the city now has a population of 8.8 million, each of the 51 City Council districts must have approximately 172,882 people; only a 5% deviation is permitted. In addition, the City Charter requires the Commission to keep neighborhoods, districts and communities intact, limit crossover districts between boroughs, avoid splitting voters of the same political party in order to diminish their effective representation and also avoid oddly shaped districts.

Immigrant justice organizations reacted swiftly to the Commission’s proposed map. DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), a Jackson Heights-based group representing South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, claims that the new maps will disempower their communities by splitting them into multiple districts in both Queens and Brooklyn: “The fact that this commission did not even try and unite a single one of our communities in Brooklyn and Queens, and worse further divided some, is against their own mission and mandate by the Charter of New York City.”

DRUM’s July 19 Facebook post overlays the Commission’s maps with the actual borders of immigrant communities. In Richmond Hill and Ozone Park, we can see that Guyanese, Trinidadian, Punjabi, and Bangladeshi communities are split into four different districts; the Bangladeshi community in Kensington into four districts; the Pakistani community in Midwood into three districts, and the Tibetan and Nepali communities in Woodside are moved into a majority white district which includes Maspeth. Other working-class communities of color have also been divided into multiple districts. DRUM vows to fight these changes.

Another controversy involves the creation of an Asian-majority district in Brooklyn. There has been a 13% increase in the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) population, which now numbers 1 million people or 14.3% of NYC’s population. Everyone agrees that the new district map must reflect this growth. But there is a dispute over the proposed new district because it breaks up a pivotal existing Latino district. Alexa Avilés of the current 38th District and Justin Brannan of District 43 spoke out against the preliminary map in a joint statement

“For 30 years, a City Council seat has existed to empower Latinos to elect a candidate of their choice, in a district that included the totality of Sunset Park and Red Hook. [It’s] pitting one community of interest against another and wiping out hard-fought gains that have existed for a generation.” 

Murah Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, criticized the Commission for failing to keep immigrant communities intact:

“By splitting several immigrant communities and not maintaining all of the City Council’s plurality minority districts, the NYC [Districting] Commission did not meet its mandate of keeping communities of interest together. The proposed district lines split up communities of color in Woodside, Ridgewood, Kensington, Richmond Hill, and the historically connected Latino communities in Red Hook and Sunset Park, making it harder for immigrant New Yorkers in these areas to elect the leaders that will represent their interests in the City Council.”

The Unity Map Coalition, composed of the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, the Center For Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, and LatinoJustice PRLDEF, raised concerns about the map because three new contained districts within Staten Island would cause unnecessary shifts in districts in other boroughs. The change would “disrupt existing performing districts, and unnecessarily ‘crack’ long-standing communities of interest, for example, splitting Sunset Park between Districts 38 and 43 in their preliminary map.” On July 18 they presented their own map to address these issues. 

The City Council cannot veto or change the maps once the NYC Districting Commission approves the final version. But local activism can and often does impact how district lines are drawn. There will be public hearings during August leading to a second draft of the maps, due September 23. New maps must be finalized by February 7, 2023.

“It is crucial that we engage the public in this process. The shape of our districts plays a part in who we choose to represent us, which in turn affects how government addresses every issue we face.”–Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Laurelton)

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. #UpdateTheRegistry as Path to Permanent Residency

Like so much of immigration politics, the significance of new legislation just introduced in Congress can’t be understood outside of history. The very title of the “Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929”—introduced last month by 46 House Democrats—invokes the shadow of history. Almost one hundred years ago, the “Registry Law” of 1929 was established, permitting immigrants who entered and have lived in the US before a specific cutoff date to apply for permanent legal residency. The cutoff registry date has been updated four times since passage of the Act.

Current registry law, updated over 35 years ago by the Reagan Administration, sets the cutoff date at January 1, 1972. This means that only immigrants who have lived here for half a century are eligible to apply. As a result, from 2015-2018, only 305 immigrants applied for permanent residency under the registry law.

The proposed legislation would expand eligibility for permanent residency to almost 8 million undocumented immigrants. It would change the Registry Law to allow any immigrant who has resided in the US for seven years or more, and who meets specific criteria, to apply for green card status. The updated law would create a rolling registry date to replace the outdated 1972 cutoff. Key sponsor of the bill, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, notes that changing the date for legal residency is not new. “What’s new,” Lofgren says, “is the Congress’ failure to regularly renew the date as has happened so many times historically.” 

Grassroots immigrant justice groups across the nation are mobilizing to support the House bill with campaigns like #UpdateTheRegistry and #UnlockResidency. Queens-based groups endorsing the updated registry law include Adhikaar and Make the Road NY. Supporters argue that renewing the 1929 Immigration Act can create systematic immigration reform without requiring new laws or controversial ‘amnesty’ provisions, and can offer dignity to millions of people who currently cannot live legally with their spouse, or their US children, who cannot work legally or apply for financial aid for education.

Vanessa, a 20-year-old undocumented resident who has lived in the US since she was two years old, urges legislators to approach immigration:

“not only as a continual crisis but as a normal, orderly, civil process. Updating this registry begins to do that by letting people like me, who have lived in and contributed to this country for many years, get a green card. It is possible. If we get enough people behind this bill, we might just be able to win once and for all.” (July 20, 2022)

 WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

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