Tag: New Immigrant Community Empowerment

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 08/23/2025

Posted on August 23, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

When this week a six-year-old child attending P.S. 89 in Queens is deported to Ecuador; when this week a US Court of Appeals upholds the cancellation of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for many of our Nepali neighbors; when this week a reported 40% of the arrests so far in the Trump regime’s hostile takeover of Washington, DC, are undocumented immigrants—it can feel like immigrant justice is an impossible dream. 

But. This week, we bring you stories of the organized resistance of everyday people in Los Angeles to ICE raids and federal government terrorizing of immigrants, with an eye towards the near future of resistance we might organize here in Queens. We also take a deeper dive into Documented, an ambitious, vibrant NYC digital media organization bringing community journalism (in multiple languages) to immigrant issues and audiences. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Resisting ICE violence from LA to JH
  2. Documented: New York’s immigrant-focused digital news hub

1. Los Angeles, Manhattan…and Queens?

The Trump regime is following through on its promise to unleash ICE thugs on sanctuary cities and “the core of the Democrat Power Center.” But mass deportation is taking different forms in NYC and LA—and so is the resistance by immigrants and their supporters.

In NYC, ICE has concentrated its efforts on kidnapping immigrants—more than 2,600 people so far—when they show up for scheduled immigration hearings at the courthouses in Federal Plaza in Manhattan. Recent reports indicate that ICE no longer even bothers to check asylum-seekers’ legal status: people are being detained, separated from their families and held under horrifying conditions even when a judge has continued their case and assigned it a future hearing.

Immigrant justice activists in our city are pushing back on several fronts. Lawyers are filing for remote appearances (by video) instead of in person. Citizen residents are going to Federal Plaza to bear witness and to accompany immigrants. A recent legal victory by the ACLU, Make the Road NY, and other groups has succeeded in slowing down the arrests, at least temporarily. There are daily demonstrations in Federal Plaza, some of which include civil disobedience. Yet many immigrants are deciding not to show up for their scheduled hearings, even though that means they will definitely be subject to a deportation order.

3,000 miles away in Southern California, ICE has focused its attacks on immigrants at workplaces, and especially at day labor pickup sites. They’ve unleashed swarms of militarized agents without warrants who don’t even pretend to search for specific individuals. Instead they chase down and detain whole groups of workers who “look Latino”—racial profiling in its boldest form. These ugly raid spectacles have more public visibility than the indoor arrests at NYC’s Federal Plaza. Partly for that reason, they have caused widespread mass revulsion and political backlash in Southern California. Most state and local politicians have spoken out strongly against the raids; LA Mayor Karen Bass has called for ICE to end its “reign of terror” in the city. A lawsuit to stop warrantless arrests of Latinos in Los Angeles has had early success.

At street level, key leadership of the resistance in Southern California has come from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), a 24-year-old worker center with extensive community and national presence. (New Immigrant Community Empowerment in Jackson Heights is a member of their national network.) In the LA area, NDLON often draws on Mexican cultural and political traditions to rally its members and supporters. It sponsors a band, Los Jornaleros del Norte, who play highly danceable protest songs denouncing ICE and promoting the dignity of Latino immigrant labor. In the wake of an ICE raid, NDLON’s large flatbed truck, with Los Jornaleros del Norte performing on board, may drive slowly down the street. Dozens or hundreds of residents come out of their houses and follow—marching, dancing, waving protest signs and Mexican flags—to demand an end to ICE brutality towards workers and the community.

Along with other groups such as Unión del Barrio, NDLON tracks ICE activities and shows up to try to disrupt ICE attacks. The group also participates in anti-ICE lawsuits, and raises money from the wider community to assist families of arrested immigrants as well as street vendors unable to work because of the threat of deportation. NDLON sponsors lively demonstrations, block parties and street festivals with anti-ICE themes, and organizes supporters to “adopt a day labor corner.” They regularly take to Instagram and other social media to uphold day laborers as pillars of the community and to denounce ICE’s racism, violence, and disrespect for all residents. NDLON seems to be growing in influence in Southern California, as they provide focus for the anger and resistance of ever wider parts of the population.

NDLON is central to a national campaign and series of boycotts against Home Depot, the giant chain of construction supply stores where many day laborers assemble to find work, and where many large-scale raids have taken place. Anti-Home Depot actions have been endorsed by some 50 progressive organizations, and are happening in multiple locations including New Jersey and Westchester. Demonstrators demand that the corporation keep ICE out of their parking lots unless they can show a judicial warrant, and they call on Home Depot to give financial restitution to workers who are detained in mass raids. 

The example of NDLON and other energetic resistance forces in Southern California provokes the question of how mass community street support can be mobilized here in Queens, which includes so many immigrants and their family members, friends and supporters. Circumstances are clearly different here. ICE’s current NYC arrests have a lower public profile, and have mostly been carried out in Manhattan, even when targeting Queens residents. There are many different immigrant nationalities in our neighborhood, each with specific urgent issues to address, speaking a variety of languages. We have no local umbrella organization of immigrants and supporters, nor, obviously, is there a single musical group that can help galvanize street protest.

But we’re pretty sure that it’s only a matter of time until ICE expands its attacks on our local streets. And we believe that there are thousands of local residents, including many of our readers, who oppose their fascist agenda. Is there a way for the diverse grassroots immigrant-led organizations here to unite, to support each other for mutual benefit, and to begin to rally the whole community behind them on the streets? Will we come out of our homes together to protest and confront ICE? Answers to those questions will prove crucial over the next months and years.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Follow National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) on social media to learn about the tactics, activities, media and arguments they employ in Southern California and nationally.
  • Donate to or volunteer with NICE, our local affiliate of the NDLON.

2. Documented’s Digital Media: NYC Community Journalism With, And For, Immigrants  

“I have long dreamed that New York immigrants should have such media. Finally, you young media people with talent, conscience, and sense of responsibility have done it.”  —message posted to Documented’s WeChat community (translated from Chinese)

We are excited to encourage readers to explore Documented, an award-winning, independent NYC-based digital media non-profit that generates immigration news daily. With a long-term vision of producing more and better coverage of immigrant issues, they have transformed how that news is produced. This summer, Documented joined with four other immigrant news organizations nationwide to found the Immigrant News Coalition, dedicated to news that reflects immigrants’ experiences and responds to their needs. Since 2020, over 150 ethnic media newsrooms have closed down, so the Coalition’s commitment to sustainable, skilled, well-funded “immigrant-centric” news media is especially critical. 

Community journalism is at the heart of Documented’s commitment to respond to, as well as report on, immigrant concerns. Documented’s community correspondents are part of their communities of coverage. They conduct audience/reader research and design new digital media products that engage with community members (online and in-person), using that engagement to generate investigative stories and news insights. In 2022-23, community correspondents at Documented conducted audience research with NYC’s Chinese and Caribbean immigrant communities, then innovated two new digital platforms to serve those communities in their own languages. With a $2 million grant from the Knight Foundation, Documented is building curricula and training for other news media to develop “community-driven reporting” and expand audiences nationwide.

This week in Jackson Heights, Documented and New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) co-organized an Education Resource Fair on 35th Ave. School supply giveaways, medical screenings, and activities for kids targeted both parents and students, aiming to support a successful start to the new school year. Live events like the Fair are an integral part of Documented’s community engagement; in 2024, they hosted in-person events involving 600 New Yorkers across three boroughs, building “trust with the people behind the news.”

Launched in 2018, Documented has altered the landscape and ecosystem of immigration news in New York City, offering a robust range of news stories and resources over multiple digital platforms, and in multiple languages (Spanish, English, French, Chinese, and Haitian Creole):

  • WhatsApp Documented Semanal—Their Spanish-language WhatsApp channel, started in 2019, serves weekly news to thousands of NYC immigrants, many undocumented. The channel is a two-way bridge as immigrant audiences can inform Documented’s journalism by asking questions, posting insights, and sharing information. Documented Semanal also hosts Q&A sessions where subscribers can text questions to ‘experts’ including immigration lawyers, diplomats, and professors.
  • WeChat community—Their Chinese-language WeChat community (named ‘New York Immigrant Chronicle’), started in 2023, serves NYC’s Chinese immigrants, most of whom receive their news via the WeChat platform.
  • Nextdoor newspage—Research indicated that over 30% of Caribbean residents actively use Nextdoor as their communication platform. So Documented created a Nextdoor presence to bring community-driven news to them. “[W]e are bringing onto this platform—where people usually talk about their lost cat…—serious news content sparking a new kind of conversation,” writes Documented’s Caribbean communities correspondent.
  • Documented.Info—Created in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), this web-based project offers trusted and regularly updated information about a rich range of “actionable resources” re: immigrant housing, education, legal support, deportation and ICE, jobs, health, and more. An extensive Service Map marks locations and gives descriptions of hundreds of NYC sites/resources.  

These innovative digital media projects are in addition to the in-depth reporting that regularly flows from Documented’s ambitious newsroom. In this month alone, they published stories on how Chinese-American voters in South Brooklyn view Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign; Mayor Adams’ veto of a City Council bill that would decriminalize street vending and protect vendors from deportation based on a “criminal” record for selling without a permit; a federal judge’s Temporary Restraining Order in response to the ACLU’s class action lawsuit against inhumane conditions at 26 Federal Plaza where ICE is detaining immigrants; and rallies and resistance in Queens to the cancellation of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of US residents. Such a vital, vibrant news organization has earned our support, and the best support you can offer is to read and share Documented’s ongoing experiments in community journalism. 

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 12/14/2024

Posted on December 14, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

 As New York City sits on the precipice of the largest mass deportation in US history as threatened by Trump, the city’s Mayor—indicted under federal charges of corruption and abuse of power—sat down this week with incoming “border czar” Tom Homan. Discussion topic: Adams’ cooperation with the feds’ deportation plans. Already on record saying, “I’m not going to be warring with this administration, I’m going to be working with this administration,” Mayor Adams declared after the meeting that he will consider using executive power to change the city’s sanctuary laws to expedite deportations. Homan declared that the meeting “went great.” 

Immigrant justice activists, including Make the Road NY and Adhikaar, rallied outside City Hall during the Adams-Homan meeting to oppose our city’s collaboration with Trump’s promised spectacle of punishment, caging, and exile.

JHISN will continue to highlight, and fight for, immigrant justice struggles as the enemies of justice gather power and popular support. This week’s newsletter reports again on the draconian Operation Restore Roosevelt and its militarized presence in our neighborhood. We then look at how national immigrant advocacy organizations are stepping up in the face of the incoming administration’s anti-immigrant violence and scapegoating.  

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Roosevelt Avenue: new home for NYPD and NY state troopers
  2. Immigrant advocates gear up for the struggle

1. Political Fault Line on Roosevelt Ave.

Roosevelt  Avenue, along with its plazas, has long been known for its vibrant street life. It’s a microcosm of working-class New York: a human tapestry of immigrant vendors from all over the world, creating an ever-changing, 24-hour open-air market and food destination in the shadow of the elevated 7 train. Today, the Avenue is mostly blank concrete and asphalt. And cops, hundreds of cops. Cops hassling street vendors and sex workers. Cops supervising the bulk seizure of unregistered e-bikes and mopeds. Cops just standing around, in pairs and groups, owning the street.

Answer Triangle, Roosevelt Avenue, May 2024

 

Answer Triangle, December 2024

This new, dreary, police state version of Roosevelt Avenue comes to us courtesy of Operation Restore Roosevelt, a 90-day enforcement crackdown previously described by JHISN (10/26/24). The crackdown is the brainchild of an energetic conservative initiative called the Let’s Improve Roosevelt Coalition, led by disgraced right-wing politician Hiram Monserrate, local church groups, embattled Mayor Adams, and City Councilmember Francisco Moya.

Operation Restore Roosevelt represents another advance for a spreading right-wing politics of respectability and scapegoating of recent immigrants. The current cop takeover of Roosevelt Avenue builds on an earlier conservative victory: largely destroying the internationally famous and much-loved vendor marketplace at Corona Plaza. Operation Restore Roosevelt is an even bigger spectacle of morality policing and criminalization, again directed at the poorest and most vulnerable immigrants in our community.

Acknowledging that there are long-standing problems with crowding and trash on Roosevelt, progressive politicians have attempted to get ahead of the conservative groundswell by promoting their own improvement plans for the Avenue. After Operation Restore Roosevelt was announced in mid-October, State Assembly member Jessica González-Rojas held a roundtable discussion on how to prevent sex trafficking in the community without police action. City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan and Assemblymembers Steven Raga and Catalina Cruz quickly announced a “7 Point Plan,” emphasizing social services, licensing, inspections and infrastructure improvements rather than massive police presence. Cruz told the Queens Eagle:

“I think historically, there has been a relationship of fear, and that’s the reality of the members of the community with the police. It cannot be the only measure or solution…because if the only approach is enforcement, we’re going to have the exact same result that we’ve had for the last 10 years.”

Conservative organizers told news outlet QNS that they “repudiated any efforts by ‘radical fringe groups’ to oppose the policing plan and ‘return control’ of Roosevelt Avenue to cartels and street gangs.” Nevertheless, the 7 Point Plan has had recent mainstream successes. It was endorsed by Leslie Ramos of the 82nd St. Business Improvement District. Also, Governor Hochul just agreed to provide a million dollars to support four local grassroots organizations in implementing the Plan. The organizations include New Immigrant Community Empowerment, AIDS Center of Queens County, Korean American Family Service Center, and Commonpoint. 

It should be noted that Leslie Ramos and Hochul each originally supported Operation Restore Roosevelt––Hochul even supplied state troopers to beef it up. But they also are both aware that the police crackdown on the Avenue is due to end in January, while the 7 Point Plan aims for long-lasting solutions.

Looming in the background of the struggle over Roosevelt Avenue is the issue of big money real estate development. As JHISN previously reported, there has been major controversy over the proposed Metropolitan Park casino project, a giant development which would be adjacent to Roosevelt Avenue. The plan is slowly advancing, despite resistance by many progressives including State Senator Jessica Ramos. Part of the Senator’s concern about the plan, which a majority of her constituents oppose, is that it would bring the wrong kind of development and visitors to Roosevelt Avenue. “Why are casinos our prime economic development idea in New York City?”, she asks. Meanwhile, Mayor Adams’ new “City of Yes” housing plan, which was just passed by the City Council, eases zoning requirements and promotes larger scale real estate development along transit lines, such as the 7 train.

Battle lines on Roosevelt Avenue are being drawn according to where to assign blame for economic problems and quality of life issues. One group of activists has chosen to “punch down” at their most vulnerable immigrant neighbors, resorting to criminalization and demonization. While another group of activists is promoting social solidarity, demanding that all levels of government, community and business live up to their responsibility to provide work opportunity and social services in an environment free from repression and fear.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Consider volunteering with New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) here in Jackson Heights.
  • Subscribe to the Street Vendor Project’s newsletter.

2. Strategies for Future Immigrant Advocacy

“As the new Trump administration takes office, Adhikaar stands resolute in our commitment to grassroots organizing and providing essential, direct services to our community.” —Adhikaar Newsletter (11/15/24)

Last weekend the US president-elect stated clearly his intent to circumvent the 14th amendment in his pursuit to end birthright citizenship. This came after he proposed placing anti-immigrant hardliner and family separator, Tom Homan “in charge of our Nation’s Borders”. They plan to create the largest deportation force in US history, violating the rule of law, by using the US military on home soil despite knowing there are serious financial, legal, and logistical obstacles. Trump’s heartless strategy to avoid separating families that have a mix of undocumented members and citizens is to deport the entire family.

Also last weekend, in counterpoint, the National Immigration Inclusion Conference was held in Texas. The three-day gathering showcased immigrant groups’ intersectional approach to stand against the current and future administration. Building justice coalitions with unions and anti-racist, gender, housing, and youth groups, was a significant daily focus. Also on the agenda were sessions about turning arts and storytelling into impact strategies, examining how funders can support immigrant rights, and discussing various legal and mobilization strategies that the 1,500 people from 450 groups in attendance can implement.

Another organization that brings together immigrant advocacy support is Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. At their two-day 2024 Convening, just a week before the election, they examined:

  • the state of the immigrant justice movement 
  • power-building strategies
  • how to intersect immigrant justice with racial justice
  • strategies for amplifying groups historically excluded from philanthropic investment. They called on funders “to act boldly, moving beyond financial investments to leverage their privilege and power to tackle the challenges that deny individuals the freedom to stay, move, work, transform, and thrive.”

Immigration Equality is an intersectional advocacy group that focuses on immigration rights for LGBTQ and HIV-positive people in the US. They recently published their Strategic Plan for 2024-2026 which includes demands for equity, secure paths to safety for LGBTQ refugees, robust resources for legal and self-help, and training enforcement officers and judges. They also demand the release of all LGBTQ and HIV-positive people from immigration detention centers.

Simply put—immigrant advocacy organizations are not silenced by Trump’s election victory and vicious rhetoric. They continue to work and provide the support their communities need.

According to Naomi Braine, a longtime activist and sociologist at CUNY, any thought of “resignation and retreat” is largely confined to people “who have never been engaged with sustained forms of action and resistance”. The election, she says, hasn’t affected the immigrant rights movement as a whole. The President of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), Murad Awawdeh, stated after the election, “We’re going to fight it…we’re as prepared, if not more prepared than the first time around.” He identified a three-prong approach: protests, local legislation, and lawsuits. Soon after that statement, NYIC published its 10-year Blueprint for Immigrant Progress and Justice. In November, Manuel Castro of NYC’s Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs said they are working with all community groups and agencies to ensure everyone understands the sanctuary laws of our city. 

New York Congressman, Adriano Espaillat, is running unopposed to lead the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the next Congress. He has said he will oppose any efforts to pursue the additional threat of denaturalizations as promoted by American Firster Stephen Miller. “I think it’s a radical approach, one that is unprecedented in America, and I think that the vast majority of American people will oppose it as well.” The ACLU is also looking at various ways to oppose deportations. Their National Prison Project is looking to shine a light on the shadowy operations of the deportation machine. Using Freedom of Information litigation, the ACLU is preparing lawsuits against mass detention and deportation actions. One of the organization’s recent public record lawsuits demands more details about ICE Air, the government’s method for carrying out deportation flights.

To immigrant advocates, legal support, and immigrant rights groups, the threat of deportation and anti-immigrant rhetoric and legislation is simply not new. Advocates have been providing groups with Know Your Rights materials and are now adding to their presentations family safety planning. They also anticipate a marked escalation of what was seen during the first Trump administration. They anticipate drastic changes without any prior announcements from the administration and will rely on word of mouth as a way for people to learn about what is happening. As Adhikaar concluded in their newsletter:

“The election outcome is a reminder of the entrenched systems that seek to undermine the rights and dignity of marginalized communities…We refuse to let our communities be silenced or pushed into the shadows. Together, we will continue to build power, advocate for justice, and demand a future where all can thrive with dignity and self-determination.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Newsletter (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.