Tag: New York Immigration Coalition

JHISN Newsletter 09/23/2023

Posted on September 23, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

As the seasons turn, we turn again to addressing one of the most pressing issues of immigrant justice here in New York City: the arrival of over 100,000 recent migrants looking for housing, employment, and a livable future. Like you, we have had to wade through corporate media stories and the cynical moves of the Mayor, to try to understand what is happening. The story we offer here refuses to see an “emergency” for New York, and focuses instead on the politics and history of immigration that call for a 21st-century reckoning. We end with an extended “WHAT CAN WE DO?” section to help readers navigate the current moment.

Crisis Theater

Adams Says Migrant Crisis “Will Destroy New York City”—New York Times, 9/7/23

Neo-Nazi Blog Daily Stormer Praises Adams’ “Insight”—Alternet, 9/8/23

Restaurant Owner Drove Car Into Men at Brooklyn Migrant Shelter—Gothamist, 9/12/23

Suing. Heckling. Cursing. N.Y.C. Protests Against Migrants Escalate—New York Times, 9/15/23

In this moment of panic and crisis—manufactured and real—we offer a few facts to help maintain a sense of proportion and historical context:

  • Between 1900 and 1914, an average of 1,900 immigrants a day came through Ellis Island. In 1907 alone, almost 1.3 million immigrants entered New York Harbor. No special papers or permissions were required for entry, just ID documents. Most people were processed in one day, often in just a couple of hours. They were eligible to work immediately.
  • About a quarter of Ellis Island immigrants settled for good in the New York metropolitan area—several hundred thousand new residents, year after year. (Back then, New York City’s population was roughly half the size it is today.) These immigrants are often credited with helping the city become an economic powerhouse.
  • Between 1996 and 2001, an average of 111,828 immigrants a year came to live in New York City.
  • Since early 2022, about 449,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion have entered the US, causing minimal social disruption. Tens of thousands of them have settled in NYC.
  • Warsaw, Poland, a city of just 1.8 million, has processed 800,000 refugees since Russia invaded Ukraine. Those who decided to remain in Warsaw—about 170,000 people—are mostly sheltering in private homes with Polish families, who receive compensation from the government.

The arrival of 110,000 asylum seekers over the past 16 months is not actually a crisis for our city. NYC is one of the wealthiest places in the world and has certainly accommodated larger numbers of migrants. Modest adjustments to our regressive tax system—ending tax breaks for the wealthy—could guarantee decent housing and social services for all New Yorkers, including its newest residents. Instead, Mayor Adams has taken the opportunity to demand drastic cutbacks in city services, while blaming everybody else: the state, the federal government, the press, and immigrants themselves. He trapped asylum seekers on the pavement outside the Roosevelt Hotel in sweltering heat for no good reason other than ramping up panic.

What we are witnessing is crisis theater, manufactured by Eric Adams and other political representatives of disaster capitalism. They see the arrival of buses from Texas full of exhausted asylum seekers as a golden opportunity to undermine the right to shelter, slash the city’s budget, and set working-class people against each other to fight over whatever’s left. They would rather profit from chaos, division, and austerity than ask billionaires to pay reasonable taxes.

As Adams surely expected, his “asylum crisis” discourse has been seized on and amplified by the radical Right. Their propaganda machine celebrates Adams’ confirmation of the “danger” migrants pose to the city. They use his blame game as justification for their own favorite talking points: that asylum seeker men are a threat to “our” children, and that progressive Democrats are just scheming to gain new immigrant voters. 

And so Adams’ fake crisis theater has now contributed to a very real crisis: the growth of a fascist movement. The mayor has opened the door to their racism and xenophobia in order to gain more room to maneuver politically and to ingratiate himself with NYC’s billionaire elite. Texas governor and migrant kidnapper Greg Abbott must be laughing out loud at the spectacle; he couldn’t have hoped for a better result.

Unfortunately, putting a right-wing target on the backs of immigrants to boost political careers has a long history in New York. In Ellis Island days, there was organized backlash against Catholics and Jews, who were transforming what had been an overwhelmingly Protestant city. Anti-immigrant politicians demonized working-class “foreigners” who they considered “less than civilized and less than white.” (Ironically, Curtis Sliwa, today’s grotesque anti-immigrant provocateur, has Polish and Italian Catholic family roots.)

Across the US, the Right and the politicians of the corporate elite are using a human tragedy—people forced to flee their homes—as an expedient excuse for cutting social programs, dividing our communities, and militarizing our streets. It’s disgraceful that Adams, Hochul, and other New York politicians are joining in. This immoral and cynical demonization of migrants must stop. JHISN welcomes asylum seekers, and sees the struggle for their rights and dignity as a fight for the soul of our city. We reject the “asylum crisis” narrative spun by scapegoaters, budget slashers, and sensationalist media. And we call on New Yorkers to unite behind the grassroots immigrant justice organizations that are on the front lines of this struggle.

WHAT CAN WE DO? – SUPPORT FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS

As the images and news reports about the new migrant arrivals proliferate, caring New Yorkers are wondering how they can be of assistance. We offer this list of names and contact information of four organizations happy to accept your help and mutual aid.

1. South Bronx Mutual Aid   646-598-3526

Urgently needs volunteer translation services to help communication with migrants.

WHAT YOU CAN DONATE
  •  Hygiene products and toiletries like deodorant, toothpaste, and toothbrushes.
  •  New and used clean clothing for men, particularly in small and medium sizes.
  •  New socks and underwear for men.
  •  Baby diapers.
  •  Money. Use this website to donate directly.

Contact organizers to arrange donations of goods, which can be mailed to: PO Box 216, Bronx, NY 10464. Please contact South Bronx Mutual Aid before sending any items in the mail.

2. Team TLC infoteamtlcnyc@gmail.com

Team TLC runs the Little Shop of Kindness on 12 West 40th St. inside the Ukrainian Seventh-Day Adventist Center at Bryant Park. Donations can be delivered there on Mondays 1– 4 pm, and from Tuesday to Friday 9 am – 3 pm.

WHAT YOU CAN DONATE
  • Men’s clothing, specifically men’s pants in small and medium sizes. There is no need for women’s clothing at the moment.
  • Clothes for school-aged children. No infant or baby clothing.
  •  New or used shoes, like sneakers and walking shoes.
  •  Financial donations directly to Team TLC’s website.

3. African Communities Together (ACT)    347-746-2281

Call or email to arrange drop-offs of donations. ACT does not accept clothing donations.

WHAT YOU CAN DONATE
  •  Money, which can be donated directly through the group’s website.
  •  Items for “care packages” made up of nonperishable food, hygiene products, toothbrushes, deodorant, and lotion.

4. New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC)   212-627-2227   info@nyic.org

NYIC does not accept donations, but will direct you to other organizations that do.

However, if you have more time available, NYIC will soon host weekly “Key to the City” resource fairs on weekdays to help immigrants and low-income workers enroll in school, access city services, find health care, manage their immigration cases, and more.

Volunteers can fill out the online application to help the fairs by:

  • Signing people in.
  • Setting up tables and cleaning up at the end of the fairs.
  • Staffing tables.

To provide pro bono legal work, email the contact above.

 

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 08/12/2023

Posted on August 12, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

We continue to highlight the extraordinary story unfolding before our eyes in summer 2023: the arrival of almost 100,000 new migrants to the city in the past 16 months. The economic, environmental, and humanitarian crises driving migration at this historical moment are hard to grasp, much less resolve. We offer a detailed update on the housing scarcity issue faced by recent migrants in NYC in particular.

And as summer again brings catastrophic fires and flooding to many sites around the globe, we focus on the struggles of Pakistani immigrants and students in the US. With Pakistan still badly damaged by last summer’s unprecedented floods, local activists are helping to lead the campaign to legally protect Pakistanis from being sent back to a disaster zone.

Note: the JHISN newsletter is also available in Spanish on our website. Share the link!

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Housing justice for new migrants in NYC
  2. DRUM fights to secure protections for Pakistanis in US

1. The Continuing NYC Housing Emergency for Asylum Seekers

“New Yorkers need more permanent housing, not more temporary shelters and HERRCs [Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers]” –Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition

Despite the dramatic media images of recent asylum seekers lying outside shelters on the sidewalks of NYC, it is unlikely the Biden administration will take immediate action to implement change. Top aides have said a Congressional solution is needed to deal with the situation—the influx of over 95,000 migrants to the city since last spring. A recent meeting of New York Senators, House Democrats, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Alexander Mayorkas resulted in a decision to simply appoint a liaison to the city rather than to solve the problem. It is also uncertain if NY State will choose to intervene given its failure to date in converting underutilized commercial spaces into residences for people in need—in the What Can We Do? section below you can join us to help influence Governor Hochul to take action. 

Although FEMA allocated over $100 million to help accommodate migrants sent to NYC from other states, Mayor Adams has said the city has not received the money. The city continues to leverage expensive hotel spaces as locations to house migrants and often faces opposition to alternative locations for new relief centers, especially when they involve expensive tent-based solutions rather than permanent housing. Our newsletter readers will recall that tent structures were, at great expense, created at both Orchard Beach and Randall’s Island in the early stages of this crisis and shut down after a few weeks. 

Back in 2022, the Citizen Housing Planning Council published a Housing Plan for a City of Immigrants. Highlighting that immigration has always been a driving force for the growth and success of NYC, the plan also stated that public policy has deprived immigrant communities of equal access to opportunity and quality of life. Not only have the Housing plan’s goals not been realized, but we see the continuing deprivation: an emergency court hearing had to be held at the end of July when Mayor Adams moved to suspend the law requiring NYC to provide shelter for all. Three weeks ago, after pushback on that suspension, Adams altered the regulation to require migrants without families to either move out of shelters or reapply after 60 days in the relief system. The Commissioner of NYC Emergency Management reported that of the 1,400 single asylum seekers who received notice to exit the system, 65% indicated their desire to leave the shelter system for a permanent housing solution. 

The cost of housing asylum seekers in hotel accommodations has prompted Mayor Adams to suggest other city services should be cut, including “library hours, meals for senior citizens, re-entry programming for Rikers Island prisoners, and free, full-day care for three-year-olds.” The expense has also highlighted issues such as the minimal use of union hotels, and the fact that hotels are being paid at a much higher room rate than tourists would be expected to pay. Controversy has also arisen over the fact that the amount of money spent daily to house immigrants is 33% to 100% greater than the amount spent on daily programs for the homeless. As City Comptroller Brad Lander has noted, “It is a feature of emergency procurement that you pay through the nose.”

Our borough of Queens is at the center of recent resistance to building temporary shelters for new migrants. Councilwoman Joann Ariola, in South Queens, announced her opposition to a tent structure plan at the Aqueduct Racetrack by stating the site was “off the table” during a rally outside the property on July 17. When news spread that another tent shelter might be built at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, elected officials of East Queens led a rally in opposition to the plan. Many electeds focused on why the location would not be good for asylum seekers and the inhumane situation caused by no air-conditioning, no heat, and no nearby transit options. But, on August 8th, a more angry rally to oppose the Creedmoor tent shelter showed that many protesters were not concerned with the plight of migrants. Waiving signs proclaiming “Americans over Migrants,” “Close the Border,” “Send them back,” and “Protect our Children,” their “Save Our Neighborhood” and “No Tent City” signs were clearly exhorting their opposition to any migrants being moved into our neighborhoods. Fortunately, there were pro-immigrant activists in the crowd standing against their vitriol. 

While there are many discussions about the problems, the issues, the challenges, and the costs of services to support new immigrants, there has yet to be a significant advance in what actually happens to better this situation. Anti-immigrant voices will use anything to speak against border crossings, the Mayor will try to find legal support to end the city’s legal guarantee of a right to shelter, and the action plans for what will happen to migrants after they have been in the shelter system for 60 days and must leave, or reapply, are nowhere to be found.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. DRUM’S Campaign for TPS and SSR for Pakistan

In 2022, catastrophic flooding in Pakistan followed after the worst monsoon season in 62 years. One-third of the country was underwater. Lives, homes, crops, and livestock were lost. International media provided information about the immediate effects of the floods, but in 2023 have paid little or no attention to the ongoing situation in Pakistan.

DRUM (Desis Rising UP and Moving), the Jackson Heights-based immigrant justice group, is paying attention. In December 2022 Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director of DRUM, met with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister asking him to make a formal request to the US government for TPS/SSR, explaining how that would benefit the 50,000 undocumented Pakistanis living in the US. 

And on July 27, DRUM organized a Zoom meeting and invited elected officials and journalists to learn about the current situation in Pakistan and support the campaign to get Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Special Student Relief (SSR) for Pakistan. Currently, two million people in Pakistan have damaged homes, millions are affected because fields are still flooded so crops can’t be planted and food prices are soaring, and many roads are damaged making interior areas inaccessible. TPS and SSR are necessary supports in the wake of such a major disaster.  

Speakers on July 27 included Dr. Alia Haider, a renowned Pakistani activist and health practitioner; Fatima Razzaq, a well-known Pakistani activist and investigative journalist; Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Chief Deputy Whip in US Congress and Chairwoman of the Pakistani Caucus; Rasa Gillani, a Pakistani student at NYU; and Shahana Hanif, NY City Councilwoman from the 39th district and the first Muslim woman on the Council; as well as Abdul Qayum, an undocumented Pakistani who has lived and worked in NYC for 33 years.

Mr. Gillani, the NYU student, pointed out that he has a stipend and permission to work, but he sends half of what he makes to his family in Pakistan. If SSR were authorized, he would be able to work more hours and provide more support  to his family.

 Councilwoman Hanif stated that New York City has the largest population of Pakistanis in the US. Many of them are undocumented and so face the possibility of deportation. The current situation in Pakistan makes it impossible for people to return and live safely in Pakistan.

Representative Jackson Lee has proposed House Resolution 23 to grant TPS and SSR for Pakistan so that people already here can be protected from deportation and have permission to work. And in November 2022 more than 140 groups wrote to President Biden, Secretary Majorkas, and Secretary Anthony Blinken to grant these protections. 

WHAT WE CAN 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 06/10/2023

Posted on June 10, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As the denizens of our city begin to breathe freely once more after the wind changed and the wildfire smoke dissipated, the climate problems highlight for us once more the challenge for immigrants in the service industry. Although everyone was advised to shelter at home for a few days, immigrant delivery workers kept working outside when the city’s air quality was the worst in the world on Wednesday. Despite the health advisories, delivery workers across all five boroughs could not afford to miss a day of work in the record-breaking harmful open air. Just as the Adams administration is struggling to create rulings that bring a fair wage to delivery workers, it is likewise struggling to aid the thousands of new immigrants being brought to the city by bus and plane, seeking asylum–our newsletter today highlights the problems facing the city in meeting our right-to-shelter requirements.

Our City Struggles to Aid Arriving Migrants

“Asylum seekers and the rest of the unhoused population of NYC need permanent housing – they do not belong in jails.”—Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC)

Ever since busses of immigrants arrived in NYC, coming from Southern States–as a political stunt designed to challenge Sanctuary Cities’ humanitarian approach to immigration–the city has been struggling to find the best way to house and support the new asylum seekers. No one doubted there would be costs and difficulties. No one denies that supporting those fleeing their countries is challenging work. Both city government and Immigrant aid organizations have been stretched thin supporting the people who have traveled for months to claim asylum in the USA. 

Showing the scope of the challenge, Queens-based New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) has been assisting about 1,000 newcomers each month. Executive Director Nilbia Coyote noted NICE has run out of space and there are not enough staff to provide help. Artists Athletes Activists, led by Power Malu, supports migrants who arrive at New York airports. Malu noted the organization spends about $30,000 every month, from private donations, to transport these asylum seekers to shelters and intake centers. But the city will not provide vans, buses, or reimbursement to help. In the same way the Republican governors bussing migrants North have blamed the Democrats for encouraging people to flock to the border, Mayor Adams’ staff have blamed activist groups for luring migrants to fly in with false promises of support.

A major positive force for new immigrants is New York’s right-to-shelter law. Established in 1981 in the case of Callahan vs. Carey, it requires the city to provide housing to all. Last month Mayor Adams asked a judge to reconsider the law because the scope of support required is not what was ever imagined at the time of the lawsuit. One of the lawyers who worked on the case over 40 years ago, Robert Hayes, said the effort to change the policy was cowardly and shameful.

The NYIC posted a number of articles in May showing an escalation of issues related to the right-to-shelter law. They discuss the plans to use upstate hotels as well as the restraining orders intended to prevent Adams from bussing asylum seekers to Orange County. There are also proposals to house people at Medgar Evers and York Colleges, the YMCA at Park Slope’s Armory, and a rec center in Staten Island. Additionally, there are thoughts to use an airfield in Jamaica Bay, a Post Office overflow warehouse at JFK, The Lincoln Correctional Facility just north of Central Park, and to leverage Rikers Island jail as possible places to house the newcomers.

Mayor Adams announced the importance of being “upfront that New York City cannot single-handedly provide care to everyone crossing our border.” In addition to the various housing plans that he and Governor Kathy Hochul have been considering, is a demand for the federal government to expedite work permits so the 70,000 newly arrived immigrants can fill about 10,000 open positions in farm work and food services.

While Adams says he is willing to consider all options, including the use of prisons, others like Manhattan Council Member Carlina Rivera believe it is “alarming to talk about using jail facilities for people who have not committed a crime,” pointing out there would not be flexibility for people to leave the island for work or appointments. Power Malu says these temporary locations are not worth the effort when finding empty apartments would be more effective. The short-term locations that have been used, like a police academy gym in Manhattan, keep the lights on all night and offer showers that give no privacy. The Lincoln Correctional Facility, which had been closed since 2019, was in use for a few days and then the plumbing broke and a number of people were relocated to Buffalo.

Over the last months, the city has been in conversation with the New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS) about a 2-year housing support contract. In conjunction with Project Hospitality and Interfaith Center of New York, NYDIS circulated a form to the city’s religious organizations to determine if their facilities are eligible to serve as a shelter. Catholic activist Félix Cepeda believes churches are better placed to provide refuge and there could be potential to use their properties…for a price. The cost is cheaper than standard shelter costs, but the spaces will only operate for 12 hours a day, so the NYDIS is also being contracted to provide day services. $35,000 will be paid per month to house 1,000 single men at 50 houses of worship throughout the city. Some financial help will come from FEMA as Congress has indicated they will assign $105 million to the NYC efforts to support migrants.

The entire process reveals the full range of approaches people have about dealing with the situation. From those who issue executive orders to block local hotels from housing asylum seekers to those who believe their communities are richer thanks to immigrants. Yvonne Griffin of Citizen Action New York believes for example that “Syracuse might not be a wealthy city, but we know how to look out for each other, and I know we can do the same for people seeking asylum”.

“[W]e should be saying, what can we, as a community, do to help? How can we pool together our resources to ensure those seeking refuge don’t have to keep running for their lives? How can we leverage what we have here to bring more resources into the community to help these individuals? And in the end, what do we need to do to treat these individuals with the dignity they deserve?”–Sal Curran, Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, Inc. 

What Can We Do?

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 01/28/2023

Posted on January 28, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

We are excited to bring you news about recent changes, and accomplishments, at Damayan—a local immigrant justice group that some of our readers already know well. With Woodside now home to ‘Little Manila’ and over half of all Filipino New Yorkers living in Queens, Damayan’s grassroots work is vital to our community. We also introduce you to public events organized by the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility housed at The New School, with a summary of their recent webinar on US border politics and Biden’s new asylum policy.  

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Damayan celebrates 20 years of Filipino organizing
  2. Public webinar on Biden’s betrayal of asylum seekers

1. DAMAYAN at 20

“Sa loob ng 20 dekada, nanatili ang Damayan na matatag sa pananaw na anti-imperialista, bumuo ng malinaw na vision at mission, at mga strategies para gumabay sa mga tulad nating domestic workers… [For 2 decades, Damayan has remained steadfast in its anti-imperialist vision, developed a clear vision and mission, and strategies to guide domestic workers like us…] —Rose Alovera, Damayan Board Member

Damayan Migrant Workers Association’s mission is to “organize low-wage Filipino workers to combat labor trafficking, promote human and worker’s rights, and develop social justice leaders.” At the end of 2022, Damayan—many of whose 1500+ members live in Queens—made several major announcements at their 20th Anniversary and Annual Holiday Party.

Perhaps the most important news was that Riya Ortiz, a long-time organizer with Damayan, has been selected as the group’s new Executive Director. Ortiz said, “My family’s experience of forced migration and years of organizing and activism convinced me to embrace the vision and mission of Damayan.” Co-founder and outgoing ED Linda Oalican will transition out of office in the first quarter of this year, after two decades of what Damayan praised as “providing critical services, educating, organizing, and mobilizing Filipino migrant workers in New York and New Jersey.”

One of Damayan’s key accomplishments in 2022 was to help more than 200 Filipino workers receive a total of over $3 million from the New York State Excluded Workers Fund. Last year, Damayan assisted a record number of workers to gain visa approval, and secured financial assistance for 26 trafficking survivors through the federal Trafficking Victims Assistance Program. In a display of the group’s broad community support, Damayan’s recent holiday fundraiser easily surpassed its goal, raising over $22,000 from more than 170 donors.

JHISN congratulates Damayan and outgoing ED Lina Oalican on 20 years of impressive achievements in the fight for social justice. We extend our solidarity to new ED Ortiz, and to all Damayan’s Directors, activists, and members. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • If you are able, please donate to Damayan!
  • Attend the tribute to outgoing Executive Director Linda Oalican on February 25th.

2. Asylum Betrayed: Biden’s Border Politics and Title 42

On January 13, The New School’s Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility here in NYC hosted an important webinar, “Asylum Betrayed: Biden’s Border Politics and Title 42.” The Institute offers courses, sponsors lectures, and events, and supports critical scholarship on all aspects of migration. The webinar discussion featured Eleanor Acar, director of the Refugee Protection Program at Human Rights First, Alexandra Delano Alonzo, professor and chair of Global Studies at The New School, and Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. 

Participants reviewed multiple aspects of US immigration policy and highlighted problems with President Biden’s January 5 announcement of a new “parole” plan for migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti. This scheme will allow up to 30,000 migrants per month to enter the US for a period of two years and receive work authorization, but will require everybody to apply from their home country, have a sponsor in the US, and pass background checks. Anyone trying to enter in any other way will be expelled under the controversial “pandemic emergency” authority of Title 42 and will be disqualified from the program in the future. Mexico has agreed to accept 30,000 of those expelled each month. 

All webinar participants appreciated the value of providing migrants with a legal path for entry, but rejected the use of Title 42 to punish those unable to meet the requirements of parole. The Biden program is designed to favor people with family connections in the US and with financial resources. Some migrants with good cases for asylum will likely be expelled–-a violation of international law.

The webinar offered updated information about cross-border immigration to the US: 

  • Of the “2 million migrants” said to have recently crossed the southern border, many are actually people who were expelled and who then re-crossed, getting counted two or more times. Ms. Acer explained that the restrictive policies of former president Trump are the main cause of the ballooning numbers, not the weaknesses of Democrats’ border policy.
  • Among migrants recently expelled to Mexico under Title 42, some 13,400 are victims of kidnapping or rape. 
  • For the past three years, there has effectively been a halt to asylum—a clear violation of international law and stated US values, according to Mr. Gelernt.
  • The Mexican asylum system is already overburdened and underfunded and will have difficulty absorbing 30,000 additional migrants per month. It is not known why Mexico has agreed to accept people expelled by the US, but Dr. Delano Alonzo said the Mexican administration might be anticipating some sort of economic quid pro quo.

Biden’s new parole plan has been strongly criticized by many immigrant justice and advocacy organizations as well as by four Democratic senators who are usually White House allies—Senators Alex Padilla (California), Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (New Jersey), and Ben Ray Luján (New Mexico). One biting public statement against “parole” came from Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition:

“President Biden’s plan to expel those who attempt to cross the border … is an attack on the humanitarian values and obligations of the United States. This plan needlessly endangers the lives of those crossing the border in search of basic freedom in our country, and succumbs to the fearmongering espoused by anti-immigrant conservatives. . . . Rather than limiting humanitarian parole for just a select few with family connections and financial privilege, the Biden administration must expand additional protections for all asylum seekers, so that our country can fulfill its humanitarian obligations and provide opportunity and freedom for all.”

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

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

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 10/01/2022

Posted on October 1, 2022 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

When we are writing the newsletter, we often are imagining you reading it. This week, we are imagining that our quick dive into recent activities of local immigrant justice groups could motivate and inspire you. That our update on the latest twist in revisions to NY City Council district maps might help keep your eyes on the prize of electoral power for immigrant communities. And that our brief comparison of immigration courts in New York and Florida can deepen your understanding of what some officials have called the “human trafficking” of migrants by Florida’s governor. Read on!  

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Activities of local immigrant justice groups
  2. New City Council district maps contested
  3. New York vs. Florida immigration court outcomes

1. News from Local Immigrant Justice Groups: August–September

As always, multiple immigrant-led organizations are working creatively to provide services, leadership-building, and outreach to local immigrant communities. Here are a few of their most recent efforts:

  • Make the Road NY has relaunched its Deportation Defense Handbook, a comprehensive tool helping undocumented people to assert their rights and be empowered when it comes to law enforcement. 
  • New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) published a 13-page resource guide for immigrants. This toolkit is updated regularly based on changing laws and policies.
  • Make the Road and New York Immigration Coalition have been at the forefront of welcoming the migrants bussed in from Texas and Arizona. They’ve provided information about services and shelter, and distributed  Metrocards, prepaid phone cards, hygiene products, water, and food. In August, New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) collected donations of clothes and hygiene products and will now be participating in the new NY Asylum Seekers Navigation Center on 49th Street in Manhattan. 
  • The 2020 Census necessitated changes to NY’s City Council Districts. Adhikaar and DRUM testified before the NY Redistricting Committee in opposition to proposed new City Council Districts 26, 27, and 31 that would divide the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, lessening their political power. Instead, they are supporting the Unity Map. The next set of proposed maps were presented on September 22 and voted down (see below).
  • Chhaya is still fighting to get relief for families affected by Hurricane Ida in 2021, and is helping small businesses secure NY State Covid-19 Recovery Grants valued at up to $50,000. Also, on September 24, their street fair on 37th Avenue celebrated South Asian and Indo-Caribbean cultural heritage with music, food, and vendors and supplied valuable information on available services in the city.
  • Minkwon Center and DRUM Beats were very active in supplying information to voters during the June primaries. Minkwon is now campaigning to support the NY City Immigrant Voting Rights bill that will give DACA recipients and permanent residents the opportunity to vote in city elections.
  • Now that the worst of the pandemic has passed, Adhikaar and Minkwon Center have restarted their in-person English classes that were discontinued during the height of the pandemic. 
WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • If you are able, make a donation to any of the local immigrant activist and advocacy groups mentioned here–check their website for donation information!

2. Revised City Council District Maps Rejected

On Thursday, September 22, the NY Redistricting Commission held another public meeting to present its revised maps for the 51 City Council districts. Although the revisions incorporated many changes urged by 9500 public comments received during the Commission’s summer public hearings, the maps were rejected by a vote of 8 to 7. Please see our JHISN story of 08/06/22 on the importance to immigrant communities of the redistricting maps. 

Three notable changes to the original redistricting proposals were: 1) restoring District 26 as a Queens-only district by not including Roosevelt Island and part of the Upper East Side. Roosevelt Island would be part of Manhattan’s District 5; 2) reuniting in a single district Rochdale Village, the second largest co-op community in the city and largely home to Black homeowners; and 3) making Staten Island District 50 a crossover district by including a small part of Brooklyn.

Efforts were made to incorporate concerns that many immigrant communities (particularly South Asians) would be split into different districts and lack adequate representation on the Council. But the Commission says it is hampered by state law that only allows a 5% deviation in population between the most and least populated districts, and by the need to follow criteria set by the US Constitution, the federal Voting Rights Act, and the City Charter.

Dr. Lisa Handley, a prominent  Voting Rights Act expert, said the revised maps fulfilled the requirement that Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics would have the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates. But one reason for the “no” votes was that some Commissioners believed that Brooklyn and Bronx residents, and Dominican residents in Manhattan, would have their votes diluted by the new revisions to the maps. Mayor Adams was rumored to have asked his appointees to vote in opposition. 

The Commission is now required to make additional revisions before sending the maps back to the City Council. The next Commission meeting was Thursday, September 29, with time for further deliberations before the December 7 deadline for final maps.

3. New York and Florida—immigration courts in comparison

New York has had a one-way migrant connection to Florida since the 1970s, and 7% to 10% of people living in Florida were born in NY. There is a summer Jitney Bus line connecting the Hamptons with Florida; however, this summer it is the planes that Florida’s Governor DeSantis used to bus migrants North to sanctuary cities that have made headlines…prompting accusations that he may have violated the law. A review of immigration court outcomes in the two states gives us a picture of the systematic differences that shape the everyday lives of immigrants channeled through our current ‘injustice’ system. 

Going back over 20 years, Florida and New York have reviewed a similar number of deportation cases–each state handling between 500-600,000 proceedings. Some years NY has more cases than Florida, and sometimes it is the reverse. But New York consistently releases 7% more immigrants from custody than Florida, and Florida regularly detains 6% more people than New York. 

There are stark differences between how a New York and a Florida immigration court will rule in the cases that come before them. Overall, New York grants relief to 14% more immigrants than Florida, while Florida issues 8% more removal orders forcing immigrants to leave the country. Two crucial elements make the difference in case outcomes: 1) whether a person has legal representation and 2) how long they have been in the US.

Representation makes a difference in New York immigration courts: 40% of cases involving lawyers are granted relief or terminated (the person is released); without legal representation, 52% of cases end in removal orders. By comparison, in Florida, 35% of cases involving lawyers result in removal orders or ‘voluntary’ departure. So outcomes in Florida’s immigration courts, even with legal representation, are more likely to favor deportation over granting continuing residency in the US. The consequences for individuals and families coming before the court is huge. 

The best outcome is given to people who have been in New York for 1 to 2 years: 44% of them are granted a relief to stay in the country. At the other end of the spectrum, 48% of immigrants in Florida (who have been there for 3 to 4 years) face a most likely outcome of a removal order. For someone who has lived in the US for more than 5 years, immigration court rulings in Florida and New York have almost opposite outcomes: over 10% of those Florida cases will result in a removal order while the same (or a slightly higher) percentage of New York cases will result in a grant of relief and the ability to stay in the country. 

Florida processes half as many asylum cases as New York, but the outcomes follow a similar pattern. With legal representation, 64% of cases in New York are granted asylum while in Florida, even with representation, 75% of cases will be denied. Even without representation, New York will grant asylum to 24% more of their cases than does Florida.

So. Perhaps the best way for New York to respond to the DeSantis transport of migrants is to expedite the normal outcome of NY immigration court rulings.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

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