Tag: Mayor Adams

JHISN Newsletter 05/25/2024

Posted on May 25, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

This week’s newsletter highlights the locally-active, immigrant-led group Make the Road NY as they release their vision for New York City—in budget numbers and policy priorities. We then offer a broad review of recent national surveys on immigration, situating them within a longer US history of fear-mongering and false perceptions. With our readers, and in the lush promise of late spring, we continue to ask what immigrant justice can mean, and how we can realize it together.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. MRNY’s people-centered NYC budget 
  2. US ‘public opinion’ on immigration

1. Make the Road New York’s Budget Vision for NYC

“Our communities need bold action to reverse inequities and expand opportunities for all New Yorkers. However, essential programs and services are now under attack from a mayor determined to scapegoat our new neighbors and fear-monger in an attempt to justify draconian cuts.” –Make the Road New York, 2024 NYC Budget and Policy Platform

As the largest community-based membership organization in New York State devoted to building power in immigrant and working-class communities of color, Make the Road New York (MRNY) is a formidable advocate. With headquarters in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and on Roosevelt Ave here in Jackson Heights, MRNY has an ambitious local and state political reach. Their recent annual budget and policy platform for New York City offers a window into what they consider the most urgent issues facing mostly working-class immigrant neighborhoods like ours.

Budgets are not just financial instruments, they are future action plans that reveal the values and priorities of their creators. MRNY’s budget platform for 2024 presents a people-centered alternative to the action plans (or budget commitments) of Mayor Adams’s administration. MRNY launched their 2024 vision for the city with a collective action in front of City Hall on April 24. Here are some highlights:

Education: Reverse prior cuts and restore funding to public education and youth programs now on the chopping block as $1 billion in federal funds expires and millions in city cuts are proposed. Restore over $3 million in expiring federal stimulus funds for Student Success Centers (SSCs) that support first-generation, immigrant, and working-class students of color pursuing college and career plans. Invest between $29.7 million to $43.2 million for Adult Literacy programs for the over 2 million adults in NYC with limited English proficiency or without a high school diploma.

Housing:  As record numbers of New Yorkers experience homelessness, and shelters struggle to address needs, increase the CityFHEPS voucher program that helps folks move from shelters to apartments. Expand CityFHEPS eligibility to more households, including undocumented households. 

Immigration protections: Increase funding by $150 million for immigration legal services that can assist NYC’s newest migrants while maintaining support for thousands of current clients. Refuse Mayor Adams’s proposed cuts to the Rapid Response Legal Collaborative; instead, guarantee at least $1 million in funding so that the RRLC continues to serve people who are detained and on the brink of being deported, or have orders of removal and are at risk of ICE detention.

Policing: Shift priorities from astronomical increases in the NYPD budget to robust funding of programs that create real community safety. Redirect resources to non-police mental health responses and anti-violence programs. Reduce NYPD’s communications and press budget by 50% to decrease their capacity for misinformation campaigns after they kill New Yorkers and in other cases of police violence. Establish police-free public schools and redirect the $400 million spent on NYPD’s School Policing Division to the direct support of youth learning and growth.

Health Care:  Expand funding to at least $100 million annually for NYC Care program that offers low- or no-cost services for New Yorkers who do not qualify for or cannot afford health insurance. Aggressively address healthcare disparities through increased funding for the Access Health Initiative, and maintaining funding for the Immigrant Health Initiative which inform immigrant families of their rights and available health resources.

 WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Immigration Myths, Realities, and Perceptions

For a nation that was established, and grew, through migrations both forced and self-motivated, the United States has a long history of casting new immigrants as a source of concern or threat. The Axios News website recently showed the continuation of this trend when it released the results of the Vibes survey conducted with The Harris Poll. Various news sources chose to focus on the 51% of responses supporting mass deportation (including 42% of Democrats) and the 46% of Republicans responding who would end the 14th Amendment’s Birthright Citizenship. 

The Vibes survey also revealed that over 62% of respondents believed immigrants today have a “worse character” than those who came 50 years ago. Historian María Cristina Garcia provided Axios a reality check that 50 years ago Americans held the same opinion as today’s respondents. Not only do people today have misconceptions about immigrants seeking welfare benefits and committing crimes, Garcia says they have a romantic and unrealistic attitude about perceptions of immigrants of the past. 

This negative perception is not driven by the number of immigrants in the US. When we compare the data, in 50-year periods, from the Migration Policy Institute and USA Facts we see that, by percentage, current immigrant numbers show a return to previous periods in US history. In 1870 about 15% of the population were immigrants. By 1920 the immigrant population almost tripled, but the percentage decreased to 13% of the whole population. Fifty years later less than 5% of the 1970 total population were identified as immigrants. From 1970 to 2020, the number of immigrants in the US increased from 10 to 45 million people which, at 13.5% of the population, matches with those earlier periods in US history. The lower percentage of immigrants from 1920 to 1970 can be seen as an anomaly in US history.

Another difference in the 50 years after 1920 was that immigration management was transferred from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice (in 1940) when the deportation of undesirable aliens was made its main function. When the labor contributions of immigrants are highlighted, a more positive story emerges. Indeed NYC Comptroller Brad Lander issued a report in January of this year busting various myths about immigration and pointing out how immigrants benefit our economy; an opinion supported by recent economics research at Boston University. These claims are also backed by findings from the Center for American Progress which, in 2021, published four scenarios showing how citizenship for undocumented immigrants would boost US economic growth. 

In contrast to the negative perspectives expressed in the Axios report, a recent Gallup poll found that two-thirds of respondents consider immigration to be a “good thing.” Despite a 9% drop from 2020 in those who value immigration (from 77% to 68% in 2023), this positive opinion is significantly higher than the 27% who think immigration is a “bad thing.” Perhaps if we moved immigration management back to the Labor Department and provided more pathways to legal immigration, the US could move forward with progressive legislative changes to the immigration system, instead of promoting an unfounded fear of new immigrants.

 

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 03/02/2024

Posted on March 2, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

For several years, JHISN reported on the anti-immigrant campaign of then-President Trump that mocked sanctuary cities and instead aimed to intensify surveillance, harassment, and deportation. Now, a Democratic mayor of New York is himself leading the charge to undermine the city’s decades-old commitment to legal sanctuary and urban refuge for recent migrants. This week’s newsletter offers an update on the cynical moves by the Adams’ administration to deny shelter and social supports to asylum seekers who are, literally, being left out in the cold by merciless new policies. 

As we wrap up this newsletter, protesters are concluding a 24-hour vigil in front of City Hall demanding that the City Council vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. Nearly 70 US cities have passed resolutions calling for an immediate end to Israel’s military assault in the besieged territory, now in its fifth month. The slaughter of civilians, including 12,000 children, has turned into an unfolding genocide. And the blockade of food and water is turning into a forced famine, as over two million Palestinians are facing slow death from starvation and disease, amidst the unending risk of sudden death from Israeli bombardment and snipers. Support a ceasefire now!

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Mayor attacks sanctuary

1. Adams is Everything Abbott Wanted

When right-wing Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to New York City in the summer of 2022, he was hoping to “own the libs.” He planned to challenge NYC’s “sanctuary city” declaration and its immigrant-friendly reputation, exposing them as a bunch of virtue signaling—a hypocritical pose that he figured would melt away when confronted with the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers.

In fact, as we have reported, grassroots community groups, public workers, progressive activists, and ordinary residents have risen to the challenge, welcoming migrants and offering aid. And the migrants themselves have shown incredible fortitude and resilience.

But Abbott scored a bullseye when it comes to our mayor. Eric Adams has played right into the Texas governor’s hands. Instead of welcoming migrants, as he solemnly promised to do, Adams now bullies and attacks them. His administration scapegoats asylum seekers, branding them as criminals. To complete his surrender to the Right, Adams has openly asserted that he wants to gut New York’s sanctuary city laws. “We can’t even turn [asylum seekers] over to ICE,” he laments.

Adams is doing everything he can to discourage asylum seekers, and to punish those who do make it to New York. In October, he made a trip to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador to “personally deliver a stern message to would-be migrants thinking of applying for asylum in the US and heading for New York City.” “There is no more room in New York,” he announced. Adams even had a flyer printed up for distribution at the US-Mexico border, telling asylum seekers—people fleeing violence and discrimination—that NYC, one of the richest cities in the world, doesn’t want them. 

Adams’ abuse of asylum seekers already living in NYC is similarly aimed at discouraging migrants and positioning himself strategically at their expense.  Embracing cruelty as a weapon of politics, the mayor is currently intent on forcing asylum seekers out of NYC shelters, As The City reports:

“Last fall the city began limiting adult shelter stays to 30 days, while beginning to dole out 60-day eviction notices to some migrant families with children. Families with children are now sent back to the Roosevelt Hotel for another shelter placement when their time runs out.

“For adults whose 30 days in shelter has run out, the wait for a new shelter placement can last more than a week, during which time people lining up outside the East Village site have limited access to showers, food, and even bathrooms. Once the site closes in the evening, 25% of respondents reported that they’d slept outside or on the trains, while 4% said a family member or friend took them in.

 “About 67% of those surveyed said they had spent the night in a “shelter,” with many ending up at the city’s five overnight waiting rooms where people can rest on the ground or in chairs without cots.”

Astonishingly, the mayor is now trying to close down even these five bare-bones waiting rooms—last-ditch places that at least have bathrooms and protection from the weather. 

For Adams, creating visible street homelessness or chaos among migrants isn’t a human tragedy—it’s the centerpiece of a cynical strategy. He hopes to not only force migrants to leave the city (and discourage new migrants from coming), but also to mobilize anti-immigrant sentiment and politics to his advantage. The mayor is trying to use homeless migrants—those who he literally is making homeless—to create a public spectacle of street disorder and budget cuts. He is creating conditions for the Right to manufacture xenophobic  “quality of life”  and “migrant crime” narratives.

“I’ve said this a couple of months ago, the visualization of this crisis is going to become aware for New Yorkers. We stated we were out of room. And the cost of doing this … it was a weight we could not continue to carry.” —Mayor Adams (The City, 2/16/24)

Eric Adams, mayor of a sanctuary city, has apparently calculated that it’s useful to position himself as the scourge of asylum seekers and the enemy of sanctuary. Disregarding his cratering support among Latinos, he seems to think that appeasing anti-immigrant racists and reactionaries is his best chance at getting reelected. 

But New York is a city of immigrants, and most of us like it that way. And despite Eric Adams, asylum seekers are quickly becoming part of the fabric of the city. They’re cooking, driving, cleaning, vending, delivering food, providing care, building scaffolding, and hanging drywall. They’ve become integral to the city’s schools, advocacy groups, churches, workplaces. They are New Yorkers now.

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 02/17/2024

Posted on February 17, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

In troubled, even catastrophic, times we welcome news that brings hope and clarity to the fight for immigrant justice. Today’s newsletter focuses on the important work being done by non-governmental, community-based groups to support new migrant arrivals in New York City. We then turn to an in-depth story of Peruvian artist Olinda Silvano, co-founder of the migrant Shipibo community in Lima, whose indigenous wisdom sparks creative resistance to environmental threats both here and in Peru.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Community support for migrant arrivals—Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) Report 
  2. The art of indigenous ecology: Olinda Silvano of the Shipibo-Konibo Nation

1. Local Community Groups Are Critical to Migrant Support

“Community-based organizations, grassroots advocates, and everyday volunteers have been critical to providing support to people arriving in NYC from the border to seek safety and stability while they go through their immigration process.” —Women’s Refugee Commission

Local community groups are gaining hard-earned recognition for the support they provide to immigrants. WNYC’s radio host Brian Lehrer announced on February 7 that his 2024 Prize for Community Well-Being has been awarded to three groups who welcome migrants to NYC. One of those is the Jackson Heights Immigrant Center, founded by Nuala O’Dougherty-Naranjo, which helps new arrivals apply for asylum and form a community. Another awardee is Power Malu’s Artists Athletes Activists group which JHISN wrote about last year in our June 10 newsletter.

In addition, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) praised the activist group NYC-TLC, the NY Chapter of the national organization Grannies Respond, in its recent report Opportunities for Welcome. The report identifies best practices and lessons learned from groups supporting asylum seekers in NYC, Chicago, Denver, and Portland (Maine). JHISN has previously reported on the work of team TLC-NYC which assists with the arrival of migrants bussed to NYC, and established the Little Shop of Kindness to provide free goods to migrants in need.

The WRC report is a comprehensive examination of the strenuous efforts made to support the thousands of migrants bussed across state lines by Republican governors as a political stunt. These politicians intended to teach a lesson to Democratic-run Sanctuary Cities that declare themselves a safe haven for immigrants. Despite the challenges, 190 cities and counties remain members of the Cities for Action group which advocates for pro-immigrant federal policies and recommends local innovative, inclusive programs and policies instead of vilifying immigrants.

The WRC spoke with over 50 support organizations in building its assessment of the current situation for migrants. Their report highlights the problem of 2 million court cases awaiting review by only 659 immigration judges. They stress that the backlog “leaves people seeking protection and permanency in the US in limbo for years.” It also extends the time that those immigrants cannot work: the 150-day countdown clock for getting work permission does not start until they file an application (p6). WRC states it is time to “end the inaccurate and unserviceable ‘crisis mode’ response to the durable reality of displaced people seeking safety.” (p2) 

While Mayor Adams is still requesting more federal funding for migrant services in NYC, this report reveals that our city has so far been the largest recipient of government support: NYC received $106,879,743, Denver was awarded $9,009,328 and Chicago $12,739,273. In looking at how this money was used, WRC identified several problems faced in all four cities:

  • Using emergency shelters instead of long-term solutions for housing.
  • Leaning on emergency responses that are expensive, unsustainable, and lack transparency.
  • Inadequate numbers of Legal Service providers for people seeking protection.
  • Some community tensions over new arrivals.
  • Incomplete coordination and support from the federal government.

They also identified best practices to address the problems, including leveraging public-private partnerships to offer support; providing rental assistance and establishing private hosting programs for people seeking asylum; and using a community-led case management approach with support services. 

WRC’s report concludes with comprehensive recommendations for local, state, congressional, executive branch, and federal departments. Instead of pretending that all will be fine if the border is simply closed, WRC emphasizes the complex breadth of structural and policy changes needed to address current challenges, as well as the terrible effects of five decades of inaction by our politicians to pass any meaningful new immigration laws. Without progressive national immigration reform, local groups have filled a policy vacuum with service. 

The WRC report ultimately suggests, as does Brian Lehrer’s recognition of the Well-Being Award recipients, that success comes from kind, supportive, and welcoming community initiatives. These model positive and engaged responses to how immigration can be properly handled.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Shipibo Resilience and Resistance in DC

“To care and defend is to love, it is to prolong life, it is to combat the extinction of the region as well as its people.” —Ronin Koshi, Cantagallo Shipibo-konibo community, Lima 

The fight for environmental justice in Peru was put in the spotlight on January 23. Just a few days after a corrupt and illegitimate Peruvian Congress approved environmentally disastrous modifications to the Forestry and Wildlife Law, Olinda Silvano of the Shipibo-Konibo Nation opened the exhibition, Amazonia: A BioCreativity Hub at the IDB Cultural Center in Washington, DC. Expressing love for her ancestors, her culture, and the jungle, Olinda spoke and sang in her native language, calling for protecting the Amazon and the future of Mother Earth, while her finger ran the lines of the Kené in the mural. It was an apotheotic opening. Ironically, the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank)—whose actions do not preserve or protect the ecosystem of the Amazon—is the group that sponsored Amazonia, which has the stated goal of defending and protecting the jungle. 

Indigenous Nations in Peru have faced serious threats for decades from settlers or land traffickers. These outsiders illegally cut down cedar forests and take over Indigenous territory. The newly revised law will now allow these traffickers to change land use without carrying out a land classification study to determine if they are suitable for agricultural or forestry use. A preliminary report will no longer be necessary to authorize a forest to be cut down to become agricultural land.

Every year 150,000 hectares of virgin forest are lost in Peru, endangering the sustainable management of forest resources and the protection of ecosystems. Now, a new European Union law that prohibits imports of coffee, cocoa, beef, soy, and palm oil that have been obtained illegally from deforested forests has become a threat to forest profiteers. That is why Peru’s congress acted so swiftly to change the law. By formally legalizing predatory practices, they are protecting the profits of the export companies.

Another danger that threatens the jungle is illegal mining. The industry’s chemicals and destructive methods have seriously contaminated the region’s land and rivers. The Integral Registry of Formalization (Reinfo) was organized in 2017 to regulate small and artisanal mining. Although it was supposed to go into effect in 2020,  a corrupt Congress has kept extending the deadline. Meanwhile, a proposed “reform” bill would further weaken registration provisions.

The new legislation legalizes deforestation and degradation of Amazonian forests and ruthlessly violates the prior consultation with Indigenous peoples. It was approved through an irregular process, being opposed by Indigenous organizations, academia, and a significant majority of Peruvians. 

Olinda Silvano, who arrived in Washington with her son Ronin Koshi, showed us that the struggle to preserve our environment can and must be fought in all forums. She spoke with the wisdom imparted by her elders, insisting that the love of nature, of animals, of rivers, are the only guarantees of avoiding a climate catastrophe. 

The Shipibo people, who live on the banks of the Ucayali River, are one of the most numerous nations in the Peruvian Amazon. People like Olinda are said to have been shown the crown of inspiration. She is one of the founders of the migrant Shipibo settlement in Lima on the right margin of Rimac river, now called the Cantagallo community. She’s a leader, muralist, and lecturer, who has shown her art and her knowledge in several cities in Europe, Russia, and in recent years in North America. 

In the IDB gallery exhibition, Olinda’s 24-foot-long mural was the center of attention. It reflects the kené, which refers to traditional designs painted by women and men on ceramics, textiles, wooden surfaces and on the bodies of the Shipibo-Konibo people. Kené is made by drawing geometric patterns that express the Shipibo worldview and spirituality; it indicates identity, beauty and quality. 

The Peruvian communities of Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) mobilized to disseminate Olinda’s work and message through local workshops and exhibitions. Prior to the workshops Olinda, with the help of Ronin, drew up the designs that we were going to paint; they made straight lines, curves, geometric figures, perfect circles, all came from Olinda’s ancestral wisdom and were applied directly to a piece of tocuyo (raw cotton). Every participant with a stick or brush used paint prepared with cedar and other plants to color the design. After it dried, mud from her town Paohyan (Shell Lake) in Ucayali was applied to fix the color. With the accompaniment of Olinda’s songs and stories, and with the tapestry, ceramics, bracelets and earrings around us, an atmosphere of a Shipibo community was created during the workshop. Olinda told us how she received kené art, her training with plants, her decision to take the art with her; she shared her migration story and her significant work of cultivating and keeping the Shipibo-Konibo Nation alive through kené. 

Indigenous people continue to sacrifice their lives to defend the forests and rivers of the jungle. Thirty-three environmental defenders have been murdered in the last decade. It is urgent to protect Indigenous leaders. Indigenous artists like Olinda, with her unconditional dedication and love for her ancestral Amazonian culture, help raise awareness of an ecosystem as important as the Amazon in order to protect it, defend it, and fight for legislation that preserves it. 

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 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 01/13/2024

Posted on January 13, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

We celebrate many new years in our neighborhood. Greetings to you in New Year 2024—according to the Gregorian calendar and its lineage of imperial time. (During the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar introduced an earlier version of the Gregorian calendar that abolished a lunar-based year, still marked in many global cultures).

Our first article of 2024 brings you a story of the art and cultural work of people who have been deported or returned to Mexico after growing up in the US. Next, we report on how the Mayor’s budget cuts to libraries ignore the important programming, outreach, and resources that New York’s public libraries offer immigrant communities and new arrivals.  

 Newsletter highlights:
  1. Making art out of the trauma of forced return 
  2. Budget cuts threaten public libraries’ vital role for immigrants

1. “Pocha” Art at the New York–Mexico Border

Here in NYC, at the end of 2023, students and faculty at The New School’s Transnational Border Lab showcased the activist artwork they created during a semester working with Otros Dreams en Acción (ODA). The ODA was established in 2018 in Mexico City by Jill Anderson, a US researcher, and Maggie Loredo, who grew up in the US but was forced to return to Mexico. Their work is based in a cultural center for deportees and forced return migrants named Pocha House: ​​”The word pocha is a slur leveled at Mexicans whose speech and bearing show the traces of a childhood spent in the United States.” 

Together, Loredo and Anderson have created numerous projects and presented their research findings about the people who have had to return to Mexico even though they never grew up there. In addition to their Ecologies of Migrant Care project, they self-published Lxs Otrxs Dreamers. The book combines art with the stories of those returned to Mexico and “bears witness to trauma and resilience in the face of immigration policies that have separated families for generations.” Some of those stories are also accessible through the Lxs Otrxs Dreamers website.

ODA, which is also a Spanish word meaning a poem to be sung, shares their artwork on Instagram. They also share news about their public presentations, such as a recent panel discussion for the Hemispheric Institute, to spread awareness of the human impact of deportation and forced return.

A sample of the images created at The New School were printed on plastic sheets with corner grommets, which allow them to be tied up outdoors. It evokes images of tarpaulin sheeting that is commonly seen throughout migrant refugee camps and temporary shelters. The artworks assemble images of deportation paperwork, the butterfly used by many immigrant advocacy groups, personal stories in written word, and the challenge to childhood that migrants face regularly. 

The New School’s end-of-year event also included a screening of El Digno Retorno (A Dignified Return), a film by Jose Eduardo Aguilar. Aguilar has been doing a university and film festival circuit to advocate for opportunities in the film industry for the deported and returned community; provide resources to undocumented people who are thinking of returning or facing deportation to Mexico; and support through the Visa Justice Program the acquisition of B1/B2 nonimmigrant visas for deported and returned people to travel to the US.

Immigrant activism in the U.S. has a focus on immigrants staying in the country, but pocha activism is about the right to come and go between countries. As part of their Visa Justice Program, ODA has also created a petition for those who are deported or forcibly returned to be able to travel freely and safely between the US and Mexico.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Cuts to Libraries Threaten Lifeline for Immigrant New Yorkers

“…[T]he Mayor wrongfully blames recent asylum-seekers as the manufactured rationale for massive spending cuts. Rather than invest in public programs and public works as a way to create stability, opportunity, and economic mobility for people, he has chosen to balance the budget on the backs of low-income New Yorkers…” –City Council Member Shekar Krishnan, op-ed, AMNY (12/12/23)

NYC library budgets are an immigrant justice issue. While not as visible as other social services, the role of libraries and library programming to immigrant communities has been huge … and is now under attack. Mayor Adams’ announcement in November of a 5% cut across all city services—with the specter of an additional 5% cut coming this spring—was met by outcries and criticism, including his attempt to blame the draconian cuts on the “migrant crisis.” But the new year begins with the library cuts going into effect, and Sunday service is now eliminated citywide.

The reduced budgets threaten the future of a host of programs and services that NYC libraries offer immigrant communities. For years, people have been able to sign up at libraries for IDNYC, a government ID card accessible to anyone regardless of immigration status. Libraries offer free English classes; online and in-house citizenship resources including preparation for the Naturalization Interview and Citizenship Test; free immigrant legal services through the ActionNYC program; and confidential guidance for asylum seekers on health insurance, school enrollments, mental health services and more. NYPL has hosted over ten immigration resource fairs and created thousands of “Welcome Kits” in partnership with the New York Immigration Coalition. The Queens Public Library runs the New Americans Program with multilingual workshops on tenants’ rights, starting a business, parenting, career planning, and becoming a citizen.

At the most basic community level, libraries provide free access to the Internet and computers, a welcoming space for kids, and a warm space for grandparents in the winter. Now all New Yorkers, including immigrants, have lost those crucial supports on Sundays.

Even before the cuts, Queens libraries were struggling to meet the growing need of recent asylum seekers and other migrants. At the Jamaica branch, as many as 200 people lined up outside the library each day, a ten-fold increase over 2022. Last October, at the Jackson Heights and Elmhurst branch libraries, over 1500 people were shut out of classes that had already filled up weeks in advance. The Flushing branch had to set up a lottery for classes after a surge of migrant interest.

 A spokesperson for the Mayor told library leaders that “due to the migrant crisis, granting further resources to them would be an example of ‘irresponsible spending’ that puts New Yorkers at risk.” Far from it. Cutting library budgets ignores the quiet but vital role that libraries play in supporting migrants and immigrant communities across the city.

UPDATE: In just the past two days, the Mayor has reversed some budget cuts (although not to libraries). Critics note that the move to restore selective funding demonstrates that the money has existed all along to protect essential services. Instead, several City Councilmembers claim, the severe cuts reflect the Mayor’s overinflation of the “migrant crisis” and his fiscal mismanagement of the city. 

 WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Support #NoCutsToLibraries. Sign the pledge supporting Queens Public Library.  

 

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 12/23/2023

Posted on December 23, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As 2023 comes to an end, immigrant justice struggles continue on so many fronts: national and global migration politics; racial and class inequalities; community empowerment; and the lived realities–and failures–of refuge, asylum, and sanctuary. We encourage those of you who can, to consider an end-of-year donation to one of the local immigrant groups JHISN follows most closely, listed below in our What Can We Do section.

For our last issue of the year, we update you on the return of some of the immigrant street vendors displaced by the city from Corona Plaza. Their victory is only partial; hopes for a more just outcome will require an ongoing fight.

1. Tug of War Over Street Vending Enters New Stage

“To allow only a handful of vendors to return part-time ‘Feels like a slap in the face,’ said Ana Maldonado, 40, who ran a tamales stand in the plaza….’There is a lot of anger’ among the vendors.”  —New York Times (11/28/23) 

“It’s a foundation. It’s not the end-all-be-all. It’s not the perfect agreement.”  —Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director, Street Vendor Project

After months of arm-twisting and horse-trading, the Adams administration has agreed to allow a limited number of street vendors back to Corona Plaza. The deal includes stringent restrictions. A “Community Vending Area” has been established under the formal authority of the Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC), a non-profit that works with the city to promote small business development. Since the QEDC will now run the vending area as a private enterprise, taking responsibility for enforcing all city and state regulations, vendors who they sponsor avoid the requirement to get (unobtainable) individual licenses.

Fourteen standardized blue stalls have been deployed to be shared among the 80 members of the Corona Plaza Street Vendor Association (CPSVA). Craft items are for sale now; food sales will come soon. Once the market is in full operation, each eligible vendor will have access to a stall about once a week. The vending area will only be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., effectively preventing the revival of the former, celebrated, night food market. As Gaston Cortez, president of the CPSVA says, “From 5:00, all the way to 11:00—that’s the best time for food vendors.” Cortez, who works with his wife to sell chilaquiles, tacos, and Mexican soups, says he will be forced to hustle odd jobs to help pay the family’s bills.

The CPSVA and their allies are pushing for more stalls and expanded hours. They’ve expressed hope that their partial victory at Corona Plaza will be a first step in decriminalizing street vending, and will help establish a pattern for legal street vending across the city. At a press conference on December 12, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi seemed willing to consider opening other Community Vending Areas if the Corona Plaza “experiment” is successful. 

It’s not clear how much impact the Community Vending Area model might have for the 12,000 vendors—mostly immigrants—who are currently on the city’s waiting list for vendor licenses. Or the thousands more who aren’t even allowed to join that list, which is currently closed. Nor can the city be considered a trusted partner, having broken its promises to the vendors over and over.

Vendors are especially skeptical of the Adams administration’s intentions in light of the ongoing crackdown at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza greenmarket. Parks Enforcement Patrol has been aggressively citing unlicensed vendors and forcing them to leave Prospect Park. Some vendors have moved to nearby traffic medians or in front of the Brooklyn Central Public Library. Cynthia Blade, a long-time craft and vintage jewelry vendor, told Gothamist, “They’re shutting us down at the height of the holiday season. I would say…80% to 90% of my annual income comes from the holiday season.” Not far away, another enforcement blitz—on the Brooklyn Bridge—has resulted in 240 citations by Sanitation Department cops. 

But street vendors are taking the offensive too. On Wednesday, December 6, hundreds of people chanting “Vendor Power!” rallied in support of a new city council initiative that would provide substantial relief. The four-part legislative package is being put forward by council members Pierina Sanchez (the daughter of street vendors from the Bronx), Amanda Farias, Jackson Heights council member Shekar Krishnan, Carmen De La Rosa, and public advocate Jumaane Williams. The first of the proposed laws would mandate that the city issue at least 3,000 vending licenses a year for five years, after which there would be no cap. The second would make unlicensed street vending a civil offense instead of a crime. The third would establish a Department of Small Business Service to assist vendors. The final piece of legislation would clarify rules about where vendors could operate. “We are one of the only cities in the United States of America that arbitrarily caps vending,” Sanchez argues. “The solution lies in business licensing. It lies in decriminalization.” 

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.