Tag: New York City

JHISN Newsletter 04/27/2024

Posted on April 27, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As we know, our vibrant immigrant neighborhoods here in Central Queens are profoundly affected by external forces. This week we report on the attempt by a billionaire and his political buddies to build a casino in Queens on what is currently designated parkland—a project that would disproportionately affect nearby working-class immigrant communities. We then take a look at recent court decisions and moves by the federal government regarding TPS (Temporary Protective Status) that can strengthen or weaken legal protections for neighbors here in Jackson Heights. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Corona, East Elmhurst, Flushing threatened by mega-development project
  2. Update on safeguarding TPS (Temporary Protective Status) 

1. Casino Project Divides Neighborhood

“The casino will only exploit our community’s poverty and mental health issues, issues that especially impact the immigrants in Flushing, as well as tear down the hard-earned livelihoods earned by our parents and elders.”  Sophia Lin, MinKwon Center

Acres of desolate parking spaces surrounding Citi Field have become the focus of a major political battle, pitting billionaire Steven Cohen, the owner of the Mets, against the Flushing Anti-Displacement Alliance (FADA), FED UP (Flushing for Equitable Development and Urban Planning) coalition, the MinKwon Center, Queens Neighborhoods United and their allies. 

Cohen has mounted a slick, hard-charging campaign seeking approval for his proposed $8 billion development, Metropolitan Park, which would be anchored by a casino. The overall project also envisions about 20 acres of green space, hotels, and a Hard Rock Cafe. Cohen claims that Metropolitan Park would increase tourism and create 15,000 jobs. Local City Councilperson Francisco Moya is a supporter, as are some construction unions. 

However, FADA challenges the project’s impact on the adjacent, predominantly working-class immigrant neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst, and Flushing. They argue that “there is documented evidence of casinos contributing to gentrification and displacement of our residents, workers, and small businesses.” Critics also point out that climate change will inundate the whole Flushing Creek development area—formerly wetlands—without proper mitigation. FADA has proposed their own alternative for the site: a 65-acre public park with water views, called Phoenix Meadows, dedicated largely to green space, outdoor recreation, and flood resiliency. 

The area in contention was in fact designated as parkland in 1939, part of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, but has never been used for that purpose. In order for Cohen’s casino project to advance, the state legislature would have to waive the land’s legal status as a park. (Ironically, Cohen’s slogan is “Let’s Turn a Parking Lot Into a Park.”) That puts State Senator Jessica Ramos in the hot seat. Cohen is eager to get her to co-sponsor a bill—already waiting in the Assembly—to privatize the parkland. While at the same time many of Ramos’ constituents are upset that she would even consider “alienating” needed public land for a private casino.

Ramos has hosted three town halls about Cohen’s casino plan. According to The City, “Ramos said it’s been hard to find people who are actually supportive of the casino but who haven’t ‘received or been promised a check’” by Cohen. The Senator’s own polling shows that most local residents oppose the casino, with 84% favoring Phoenix Meadows over the Metropolitan Park proposal. In addition, Ramos has criticized Cohen’s expensive publicity campaign for his plan, which sometimes fails to even mention that it features a casino.

For Phoenix Meadows advocates, the stark reality is that Cohen can probably block any alternate use of the parking lots for years since he currently controls them under a long-term lease. And as Ramos acknowledges, many people living near Citi Field would like to see some form of economic development to replace the acres of asphalt. But the give-away of public land for an unpopular project faces serious obstacles as well.

Ramos has postponed her decision from April, to May, to June. In the meantime, partisans on both sides have lobbied her furiously. For instance, dozens of small business people, including owners of the Jackson Diner, Pio Pio, and Kabab King, signed a letter asking Ramos to support Metropolitan Park. Jessica Rico, owner of Mojitos, helped lead the effort, arguing that Cohen’s plan was a “marvelous project” that would be good for tourism and small business. 

In contrast, FADA has organized a series of spirited demonstrations, including one in front of Ramos’ home on 79th Street earlier this month, demanding that Ramos act like a “real progressive” and “listen to the people.” “We will not let a billionaire dictate our future,” they say. Ramos encourages all community participation on the issue and has pledged to “keep lines of communication open.” 

With each side of the controversy wielding possible veto power over the other’s proposal, and with the state Gaming Commission scheduled to finalize coveted casino sites by the end of next year, Ramos finds herself in the middle of intense negotiations. But she seems to be in no hurry.

“I work at the speed of my neighbors, not at the speed of a billionaire’s personal timeline. If I was to introduce parkland alienation legislation, it would only be because my community has iron-clad commitments where the benefits vastly outweigh the risks associated with a casino.” —State Senator Jessica Ramos

WHAT CAN WE DO?

  • Sign the Fight4Flushing petition calling for NO Casino, NO privatization of public parkland.
  • Check out the FED UP coalition’s map of Flushing area developments and predicted flooding.

2. How the courts help and hinder TPS

Established as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, Temporary Protective Status (TPS) grants employment and travel authorization and protects eligible migrants from deportation. To be eligible a migrant must already reside in the US, and be a citizen of a TPS designated country suffering from natural disaster, protracted unrest, or conflict. 

Seven years ago then-President Trump announced he would end the TPS program for El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan. Despite these program cancellations being associated with his infamous statement that these were “shithole countries“, lawsuits were unsuccessful in convincing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that racial discrimination was the primary factor for the decision. After courts ruled that terminating TPS was lawful, Homeland Security was emboldened; they added Nepal and Honduras to the list of canceled TPS programs. Local group, African Communities Together, led one of the many follow-up lawsuits to protect Liberians when the administration added canceling Liberia’s DED (Deferred Enforced Departure)—DED is a variation of TPS but, whereas TPS is designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security, DED is granted by the President.

A unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court in one of eight cases related to TPS found that admission to the US and gaining lawful status through TPS are distinct concepts. As a result, a person who holds TPS but was not “lawfully admitted” will not be eligible to apply for Legal Permanent Residency (LPR). Legal clinics believe it is unlikely that this ruling will rescind the status of people granted LPR in the past but, as the right-wing 2025 Project reveals, the reinstatement of the denaturalization program is a critical element of the next Republican presidency. Denaturalization—which strips citizenship status from immigrants who have previously earned it—could be weaponized against past TPS recipients who followed a pathway to citizenship.

The length of time for these court appeals extended into the start of Biden’s administration, but no immediate action was taken to reverse the program cancellations. The administration did not rescind the program terminations until June of 2023.  Although the PEW Research Center has reported that TPS expanded under Biden, it has done so mostly under pressure. In May of 2022, Jackson Heights’ congressional representatives AOC and Grace Meng signed a letter urging Biden to expand the TPS program. In addition to finally extending TPS for people from the four originally threatened regions, Biden’s DHS is considering a request for Guatemalans to be granted TPS, allowing them to live and work in the US without fear of deportation. AOC also signed a second letter in September of 2022, urging TPS protection be granted to people from Pakistan. Both are still under consideration. Adhikaar successfully advocated for TPS to be extended for Nepal in 2023.

Note: the graph above by the Council on Foreign Relations does not reflect changes from 2024.

The Biden administration has shown it can take action, but only when pressured to do so. Last month local groups Adhikaar, ACT, DRUM, Families for Freedom, and Make the Road NY co-signed the Haitian Bridge Alliance’s letter; 481 groups urged the administration to expand and redesignate TPS for Haiti beyond August 2024. While pressuring Biden to continue support for TPS during a future second term is not optimal, it is more palatable than taking legal actions during a second Trump term since the courts have already said the President can immediately end all these humanitarian programs. 

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 04/06/2024

Posted on April 6, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

We bring you news this week from the community frontlines of immigrant justice, highlighting the recent work of DRUM—a local group building power among low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers. We then offer a frightening look at the publicized plans to dismantle and re-assemble the Department of Homeland Security into a militarized, anti-immigrant agency operating with impunity. The plans are part of the notorious Project 2025, a right-wing fever dream should the Republican party control the White House after the next election. 

 In these final days of Ramadan, as neighborhood communities look toward the crescent moon marking the end of this holy month of fasting, reflection, and prayer, we remember the Palestinians facing hunger and starvation in Gaza long after the Shawwal moon grows full.     

Newsletter highlights:
  1. DRUM initiates community meetings with electeds
  2. Project 2025’s plans for immigrant injustice

1. DRUM Challenges Lawmakers

DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) is known for its promotion of grassroots democracy. In February, instead of waiting for elected representatives to hold town meetings about legislation that DRUM supports, they arranged for multiple local community gatherings and invited the electeds to attend.

“For our community meetings, we wanted to invert the dynamic of us going to our representatives. We called on them to come and sit with the people of the districts they represent and hear directly from us about the issues we are organizing around.”—DRUM Facebook (March 15, 2024)

Four open meetings were held: two in Queens and one each in Brooklyn and the Bronx. These “were opportunities for [elected officials] to practice accountability and report on their actions that affect our lives,” DRUM says. 

Top issues of concern included the housing crisis, workers’ rights, education, and the genocide in Gaza. The corresponding legislation currently in the State Senate are the Good Cause, the Unemployment Bridge Program, and the Not on Our Dime bills.

The Good Cause law would protect tenants from arbitrary eviction and hold rent increases to 3%, or 150% of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is higher, as long as tenants continue to pay rent. Landlords could still evict tenants for non-payment of rent or lease violations.

The Unemployment Bridge Program would establish a fund for replacing lost wages for workers not eligible for unemployment insurance because of immigration status or the type of work they do. This proposed law is based on the principles of the historic Excluded Workers Fund. 

The Not on Our Dime! bill would end New York state support for Israeli settler activity by banning not-for-profit companies from supporting Israeli settlement activity that violates international law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

 DRUM’s reportback states:

“For all electeds, we call on you to take the time to be in the communities that you were elected to serve, and to show up in meaningful ways.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. The Intimidating Mandate of Project 2025

“Project 2025 elucidates how the administration would halt legal immigration, centralize power in the federal government, decimate privacy protections, and risk American security and prosperity, all in pursuit of a political obsession with immigration.” —Cecilia Esterline, “Unveiling the far right’s plan to demolish immigration in a second Trump term” (Niskanen Center, Feb. 2024)

Project 2025’s 900-page Mandate for Leadership is a self-described conservative playbook to “guarantee implementation of the Day One agenda,” which Trump has, without regret, stated will be his day of dictatorship. As a guidebook to “deconstruct the Administrative State,” 35 pages of Project 2025’s Mandate focus on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its immigration procedures. If implemented, these initiatives would effectively give more militarized Enforcement and Removal Operations agents the authority to conduct warrantless searches anywhere in the country, and, when directed by the Secretary, enforce regulations internationally. Project 2025 creates a blueprint for the vast expansion of unaccountable executive power. DHS would be run by the executive office and its political appointees who will take novel approaches to circumvent the Congressional confirmation process. They will create data analysis and communication channels to control the flow of all information to justify and promulgate their anti-immigration stance without any checks and balances. 

A sample of Project 2025’s recommendations to dismantle DHS and its existing immigration system includes stopping funds for all NGOs that support immigration; budgeting more government money for the border wall and to increase security at Ports of Entry; prioritizing the immediate deportation of immigrants over citations to appear in immigration court; ending legal prohibitions on family separation and allowing the expanded use of tents for temporary ‘housing’ of migrants; repealing the unaccompanied minor rule and permitting children to be housed by DHS instead of Health and Human Services; raising the standard for credible fear claims and removing domestic violence or gang violence as grounds for asylum; expanding the use of Blackies warrants, which notoriously rely on profiling appearance and ethnicity, and allowing, with limited oversight, workplace raids and the arrest of immigrant workers; and reinstating the Denaturalization Department to remove US citizenship and deport people.

The reason given for these recommendations is that DHS has “suffered from the Left’s wokeness and weaponization against Americans whom the Left perceives as political opponents” (p. 135). The Mandate itself directly weaponizes all departments against immigrants, even the one agency people recognize as supporting people in dire need, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (p. 138). After first asserting that the disaster response agency is not lawful, the Mandate then demands that any organization receiving FEMA funds should prove it is a lawful actor by: 

  • Forcing them to detain immigrants. 
  • Granting DHS full access to DMV and voting records of any state receiving FEMA support. 
  • Requiring them to register with E-verify. 

E-verify has been described by critics as an intrusive and expensive government surveillance of daily life that would create enormous privacy and security risks. The ACLU writes that “a mandatory E-Verify system—which forces everyone in the country to ask the government for permission to work—simply does not belong in fair immigration reform.” 

Project 2025 is not looking to create a fair or better immigration system; that is a legislative role. The Mandate’s primary goal is to reorganize DHS so that Congress has little power over the way the Department runs, or who runs it. A second goal is to further militarize the department and to convert administrative positions into enforcement roles. It will transform what is the third-largest federal department into a 100,000-person armed force that the president can wield, globally, without Congressional oversight. Another priority is to remove the options for asylum claims, including eliminating claims based on credible fear. The only time the Mandate adds an option for immigration is when recommending that people with wealth be allowed to pay for expedited immigration procedures (p. 146). 

Even if the recommendation is not adopted to deliver that department of 100,000 enforcers, the 2025 Mandate offers another option: combine Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a single department, the Border Security and Immigration Agency, (BSIA) (p. 138).  Given “the persistent need for and utilization of U.S. military personnel and resources to assist BSIA with increasing whole-of-government efforts” (p. 139), they go even further: the Office of Air and Marine (OAM) will share with BSIA its aviation assets across the globe, and in every state in the US. DHS would then have the option of using military/aviation equipment anywhere in the US or globally wherever it sees a threat. This militarized overreach was already tested in 2020 when CBP flew a drone outside of the 100-mile border enforcement zone to monitor a George Floyd protest in Minneapolis.

The 2025 Mandate also expands the role of the Secret Service Uniform Division which protects the physical White House grounds. Its jurisdiction would be expanded to cover all of Washington, DC, to counteract what is stated to be a “trend of progressive pro-crime policies” (p. 158). The ICE memoranda identifying sensitive zones where agents cannot go would be rescinded. By removing “self-imposed limitations on its nationwide jurisdiction,” ICE agents can pursue “the civil arrest, detention, and removal of immigration violators anywhere in the USA without warrant” (p. 142). This means any institution of learning, hospitals, places of religious worship, funerals, weddings, and public demonstrations, marches, or parades would become locations where federal agents can act unimpeded. 

The majority of people whose lives are vulnerable to the dehumanizing escalation and expansion of immigration enforcement practices, militarized throughout the nation, cannot vote in the elections which can stop its implementation. If US voters are fine with electing politicians who will enact these changes, that could be used to limit their own freedoms, it is because they don’t expect these tactics will ever be used against them. They could be wrong.

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 03/23/2024

Posted on March 23, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

Spring is official, and we welcome our readers to the early bloom of change in the neighborhood. And in this sacred month of Ramadan celebrated by so many here in Jackson Heights, we wish you extra time for reflection, community, and connection.

Our first story also brings news of change: the shifting landscape of global migration behind an increasing number of West African immigrants arriving in New York City. We then turn to report on the largely invisible stories of Palestinian Americans in Gaza and the West Bank during a relentless war, and the obstacles to immigration even for close family members of Palestinian US citizens.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Troubled routes for West African migrants
  2. Stranded and besieged: Palestinian Americans in the Occupied Territories

 

 

1. West Africa to NYC

“We always heard when you come here, you’re going to find two jobs, you’re going to work, you’re going to survive. But when you come here, it’s hard to even find one job. It’s a fiction, what we heard.” —Ibrahim Mbengue, recent Senegalese immigrant

Embodying the shifting currents of global migration, hundreds of thousands of West Africans, mostly young men, have been arriving at the US-Mexico border over the last few years, with tens of thousands ultimately making their way to New York City. In fiscal year 2023 alone, 58,000 Africans crossed into the US from Mexico, three times as many as the year before. At the end of 2023, about 14% of the people in New York’s migrant shelters came from Senegal, Guinea, and Mauritania, countries on the Atlantic coast embroiled in social conflict and economic crisis. Like other migrants, West Africans leave home for a range of reasons, fleeing organized violence, repression, discrimination, domestic abuse, climate change, and lack of economic opportunity. But their pathways of migration, and their experiences in New York, are unique.

West Africa is much closer to Europe than to the US. But EU nations, with the cooperation of the Moroccan navy, have progressively hardened their borders, effectively discouraging West Africans from crossing the Mediterranean. At the same time, a new, circuitous route from Africa to North America has opened up. In what some commentators call a “weaponization of migration” intended to respond to US sanctions, the government of Nicaragua is providing unrestricted low-cost visas to African migrants. Flying into Nicaragua with legal status can be used as a stepping stone towards the US. In West African countries, ads for “travel packages” to Nicaragua are prominently featured on TikTok and other social media. Brokers buy up large numbers of airline tickets and resell them to migrants at a profit.

A series of flights from West Africa to Nicaragua is expensive, often costing $10,000 or more. Migrants often rely on loans from family members. The trip is also arduous. It typically begins by flying to international airline hubs like Istanbul, where migrants board the sold-out daily flight to Bogotá, Colombia. From there, they struggle to catch a connecting flight to San Salvador, and then another to Managua. Travelers often get stuck in the crowded Bogotá airport for days as they attempt to arrange the next leg of their journey. 

In Managua, migrant travelers meet up with guides and make their way north by foot, bus, and train through Central America and Mexico to the US border. By starting out in Nicaragua, African migrants have a head start: they avoid the dangers of the infamous Darien Gap, which lies further south between Colombia and Panama. Yet the trek north is still extremely perilous. Like other migrants, Africans may be preyed on by dishonest smugglers, officials, police, and gangs; they are sometimes subjected to violence or robbed of their possessions. After reaching the US border and requesting asylum, migrants undergo Border Patrol and ICE processing. The US government has found it difficult to deport Africans because of distance, and lack of bilateral agreements with the countries of origin. Most West African migrants are allowed to travel to a US city of their choice while their asylum court dates are pending.

Although a few African immigrants have come to New York on Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s infamous buses, most arrange their own transportation from the border. On arrival, they face daunting challenges. Mayor Adams has imposed a thirty-day limit on shelter stays for single migrants, including young people. Within the shelters, lack of translation resources has prevented some West African migrants—who may speak French, Arabic, Pulaar, or Portuguese—from accessing basic services or assistance with their asylum cases.

Once pushed out of the shelter system, New York’s African immigrants often struggle to find housing, food, and other necessities. Many are living in makeshift circumstances—in basements, crowded informal shelters, on the sidewalk, in the subway, or in ad hoc spaces provided by non-profits and religious groups. Usually, the community groups willing to provide emergency shelter are ineligible for government aid, since they don’t meet the required fire and building regulations.

A network of some 20 small mosques distributed around the five boroughs has found its open-hearted generosity overwhelmed by the needs of newly arrived West African Muslims. Community organizations like Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), African Communities Together (ACT), and the mutual aid group Black and Arab Migrant Solidarity Alliance (BAMSA), are also swamped by the sudden demand for food and health care, ESL classes, housing and legal assistance. The Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY) is currently spending $22,000 to cater halal meals for 100 people at the neediest mosques across the city during the days of Ramadan.

Like other new arrivals, African migrants want above all to work. Lacking official permits, many have turned to day labor, street vending, and food delivery—including work for the major delivery app companies, using “shared” ID documents. These labor pools are already crowded and competitive. Nevertheless, many Africans go to great lengths to not just survive but send a few dollars back home.

A wide spectrum of community organizations and liberal politicians has called on the Biden administration to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to African and Caribbean migrants who face unsafe conditions in their countries of origin. This would reduce fear of deportation and provide access to legal employment. So far, the administration has not agreed.

“By not taking action to address the specific barriers that Black immigrants face when seeking immigration relief, the administration is not only upholding the inequities that exist throughout many of the programs, but championing the continued silence around the experiences of the country’s fastest-growing immigrant population.” —Diana Konaté, Policy Director, African Communities Together

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • If you can, donate to the groups linked to above that support West African migrants.
  • Urge Chuck Schumer to get the Biden administration to authorize TPS for West Africans.

2. Abandoning Palestinian Americans in Gaza

“And so … you see the same pattern over and over and over again. The State Department says something very basic and generic, and then they don’t do anything about it, and they wait for the story to fade away. And that sends the message to Israel: You can do whatever you want, even to American citizens, and no one will hold you accountable.” – Edward Ahmed Mitchell, civil rights attorney and national deputy director of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), 2/14/24

The recent killing, arrests, and attacks on US citizens in Gaza and the West Bank are stories barely told in mainstream US media, or told only to soon “fade away.” Here are just a few. Samahar Esmail, from Louisiana, forcibly taken from her West Bank home in early February and detained without charges. Palestinian American teenager Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour, 17, shot in the head by Israeli forces on February 10 while sitting in a parked car with his relative near the West Bank town of Biddu. Borak Alagha, 18, and his brother Hashem, 20, both born in Chicago where they spent their early childhood, arrested on February 8 and now held in an Israeli prison.

Around 350 US citizens remained trapped in Gaza as of December 2023, with another 600 legal permanent residents or immediate family members of US citizens—eligible to come to the US—also unable to depart. That same month, two Palestinian American families sued the Biden Administration for failing to protect US citizens in a war zone, and denying their constitutional right to equal protection. (In early October as the war began, the US government chartered flights and a cruise ship to Europe for US nationals in Israel.)

Project Immigration Justice for Palestinians (Project IJP) was launched as an emergency response to the crisis in Gaza. The coalition of US immigration lawyers and justice organizations advocates for humanitarian immigration options for Palestinians, and offers legal services to US families with relatives in Gaza. The lack of accessible pathways to immigration for Palestinians is mobilizing an urgent fight for expanded eligibility criteria for who can get State Department assistance in leaving Gaza. Currently, even green card holders cannot bring their parents to the US. Aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, and siblings who are married or over the age of 21 are also excluded. In other words, most family members of US Palestinians are not eligible for immigration even if they are facing starvation and a genocidal war. The one available immigration portal created for situations of humanitarian crisis, called humanitarian parole, usually takes years to process. It also requires paperwork—birth certificates, passports, identity documents—that for most Gazans have been destroyed in the bombing of their homes, buried under rubble, or left behind as they flee their homes.  

A lawyer with Project IJP explains: “Without the government coming out and saying that [they] are going to prioritize processing applications from Palestinians in Gaza, there’s no guarantee that any of our efforts will come to anything.”

We shine this brief spotlight on Palestinian Americans not because their stories are more important than others in Palestine, but because their situation reveals the brazen complicity of the US with Israel in devaluing Palestinian life and freedom—even for American citizens.

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 03/02/2024

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 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.