Tag: New York Immigration Coalition

JHISN Newsletter 06/27/2026

Posted on June 27, 2026 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

When good immigration news is hard to find, we look harder. The notorious Alligator Alcatraz detention camp in Florida is fully shut down as of this week, less than a year after it opened with sadistic fanfare from Trump’s minions. We hope, with many of you, that the expansion of Mayor Mamdani’s political power with this week’s primary victories will strengthen a pro-immigrant, anti-authoritarian agenda. And a Trump lawsuit targeting four NJ cities for allegedly “unconstitutional” sanctuary policies was just tossed out by a federal judge.

But the bad news is really terrible. Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling that allows the federal government to continue stripping Temporary Protective Status (TPS) from hundreds of thousands of US residents is a nightmare. Most immediately, 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians are now facing the reality of losing their TPS legal status by July 1—a loss that will affect everyone who is their neighbor, co-worker, healthcare patient, or friend.   

Our newsletter covers some of the mixed good/ bad immigration news out of this year’s NYS legislative session, which ended in early June. We then update you on the ongoing legal campaigns—and harassment—of two high-profile international students from Columbia University targeted for deportation.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. NY State Legislature gestures toward immigrant protections
  2. Deportation threats to Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil

1. Latest NY State Legislation Falls Short On Immigrant Protection

On May 21, NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie noted that the 2026-27 state fiscal budget includes legislative provisions, signed by the governor, that protect our neighbors throughout New York from aggressive federal immigration enforcement. He suggested that local governments will be prohibited from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement officers and private detention facilities. He highlighted provisions that “will protect children in their schools and establish sensitive locations within our communities.” The official press release received endorsements from various elected officials, including Queens Assembly Member Catalina Cruz.

The perspective of immigrant justice supporters of the New York For All Act—proposed legislation which was never brought to a vote in the state legislature—was markedly different. The multi-organization coalition advocating for New York For All said, “The lack of political courage and moral leadership in Albany – and the failure to take a bold stand in the face of rising xenophobia – means that New York’s immigrant communities will continue to live with the threat that any encounter with government agencies can result in separation from their families.” 

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) outlined some of the Enacted Budget’s key elements, explaining which protections were included or fell short:

  • State and local employees may not gather information about immigration status, and cannot share personal data of NY residents with ICE…but the police are excluded from this restriction.
  • “Sensitive locations,” including hospitals, churches, and private homes, can deny entry to ICE agents. 
  • The right to free public education for children, regardless of the family’s immigration status, was established.
  • State and local agencies may not rent space to ICE for immigration detention nor financially support immigration detention facilities.
  • New Yorkers can sue local, state, and federal officials in state court when their constitutional rights are violated using the newly established Office of Immigrant Trust.

Republicans claim that these new protections mean that “New York is now a sanctuary state on steroids.” But there are, in fact, at least three significant elements missing from the new budget that progressive forces had fought for. First, although the formal 287(g) agreements that allow local governments to work with ICE (previously signed by twelve New York law enforcement agencies) were banned in New York, informal collusion between local police and immigration enforcement was not prohibited—that was called for in the New York For All Act. Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, noted, “The legislative package falls short of offering comprehensive protections by continuing to permit informal law enforcement collusion with ICE and Border Patrol.”

Second, state-funded counsel for immigrants facing deportation, part of the Access to Representation and the BUILD Act, was not included in the budget package. Although some money was secured for immigrant legal services, it was less than half of the $175 million called for by immigrant advocates.

Finally, the new measures banning face coverings for state, local, and federal officers in New York still allow for “tactical equipment” that covers faces.  Even with this legal loophole permitting ICE to deploy with tactical face masks, the federal government initiated a lawsuit against New York four days before the face mask ban was scheduled to go into effect. The Department of Justice has also initiated legal action against New Jersey, California, and Virginia, which sought similar mask restrictions. 

The New York Bar has explained why many of the items demanded and signed into law do not violate federal laws about police power and preemption. None of those explanations will stop the threats from Homeland Security to conduct an ICE surge in NYC. Passing the entire New York For All Act would help strengthen legal action against the overreach and violations of basic rights by ICE and border patrol federal agents.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Deportation Threat Ongoing for Palestinian Student-Activists at Columbia University

 “[T]he administration is abusing immigration law to silence me for speaking the truth about Palestinian suffering and genocide. When a government weaponizes immigration to punish speech, millions of immigrants and citizens feel that blow.” —Mohsen Mahdawi (June 10, 2026)

In Spring of 2025, Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil, both Columbia University students, became two of the most prominent faces of international student-activists targeted for their Palestine solidarity work. The newly-installed Trump regime quickly weaponized immigration law and accusations of antisemitism to incarcerate both young men in its broader campaign to silence and punish university-based mobilizations against the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Both men are Palestinian. Khalil was born in a refugee camp in Syria; Mahdawi in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Khalil is a graduate of Columbia’s prestigious School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA); Mahdawi is currently enrolled in the MA program at SIPA. Both are green card holders and legal US residents. Both were accused of nothing beyond the “memos” from Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating that their presence in the country might undermine US foreign policy goals. Both were eventually released from detention after public outcry and legal challenges. 

And … both are still threatened with deportation through legal proceedings pursued by the federal government, even as their names have faded from most headlines.

Their ongoing legal battles differ. An immigration judge in February 2026 ruled that the deportation case against Mohsen Mahdawi be dismissed. Trump’s DOJ fired that immigration judge (unlike other judges, immigration judges serve at the will of the federal government) and appealed the decision. The US Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) ruled that the deportation case could go forward, and Mohsen’s case went to a second immigration judge who this month issued an order of removal that would send Mohsen to Jordan. Nevertheless Mohsen remains in the US while his legal team challenges the deportation order in the First Circuit Court on constitutional grounds. Mohsen declared:

“… I’m going to cut to the core of this issue, which is an issue that is related to the First Amendment. Do I have, as a green card holder, as a lawful permanent resident for 12 years, never committed a crime — do I have the rights that actually the citizenship questionnaire that I get tested on states that I do … do I have the right to free speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression?” —on Democracy Now! (June 12, 2026)                                                              

Mahmoud Khalil’s case is on a different track, though he also is protected for now from a deportation removal order that has been set in motion. His legal team made a second appeal in May 2026 to the US Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to dismiss the deportation case against him, after new revelations of government misconduct. The Trump regime is accused of “secretly engineering” the outcome of his case. The allegations of misconduct are corroborated by statements from former immigration judges, former BIA workers, and accumulating evidence that top government officials pressured judges to “decide” cases with predetermined outcomes in spotlight cases like Khalil’s, and to expedite deportation orders. One legal decision against Khalil was handed down by the BIA in a mysteriously speedy nine days. 

Meanwhile, a legal challenge in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was decided in late May against Khalil, and a new challenge was immediately filed by his team in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also separately requested a Supreme Court review of the Third Circuit decision. “We hope the Supreme Court will recognize how dangerous the Third Circuit’s decision was, not just for Mahmoud but for other non-citizens the administration has its vengeful sights upon,” said Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Regardless of the outcome of their cases, Mohsen and Mahmoud remain targets of merciless legal harassment through a federal government campaign to deport them—and to silence, repress, and frighten others who would speak out.  

Columbia University has to date made no public statements in support of Mohsen, a current student, or Mahmoud, a recent graduate. The University has been operating since July 2025 under an unprecedented “settlement”’ with the Trump regime, in which the University paid the government $221 million, and agreed to a set of institutional changes demanded by the federal government. One of those demands was that the University start asking all international applicants “questions designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in the United States.” Or, in the words of Marco Rubio, “we are not going to be importing activists into the United States.” 

WHAT CAN WE DO? 
  • Join the weekly vigil every Monday at 12pm near Columbia’s campus to protest DHS and ICE targeting of students, organized by CUIMC Stands Up.

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

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

JHISN Newsletter 02/28/2026

Posted on February 28, 2026 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

It has been a wild winter in New York City since our last newsletter, and we hope this finds you warm and well. Our previous newsletter also landed in your inbox the day, January 24, that Alex Pretti was murdered in the street by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in Minneapolis. Alex Pretti and Renée Nicole Good, both US citizens, join six immigrants who died in ICE custody in January—Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parady La, Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, and Heber Sánchez Domínguez—to make January 2026 a dreadful, deadly start to this new year of mass deportations.  

Today’s newsletter looks at the ongoing campaign to pass NYS legislation, the NY4All Act, that would strengthen protections for immigrants in the face of federal government attacks. Our second article reflects on how local sanctuary policies can help defend against the many border transgressions the Trump regime carries out in its selective “border war” against immigration.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. New York for All legislation: Can the New York State Assembly stand up?
  2. Protecting the borders we need: Local sanctuary against ICE incursions.

1. Pass NY4All Act Now, Or NY Will Have Normalized the Trump/Miller Agenda

“Silence is complicity. Inaction is complicity. We have the tools to protect our immigrant communities and we must use them. Federal immigration enforcement is cruel, chaotic, and unconstitutional. New York will not be complicit.” —Kristen Gonzalez, NY State Senator.

A February campaign by the NYCLU stated: “Pass the New York for All Act. Fight back against Trump’s mass deportation agenda and protect immigrant communities in New York.” That was back in 2020. The NY4All Act, if passed, would have prohibited the use of New York’s local and state resources to support federal immigration enforcement. That could have helped us stand in the courts with more challenges to the escalating inhumanity of the US deportation operations. The campaigns documented the social and economic benefits we would gain if New York’s communities did not cooperate with ICE. But no legislative action was taken.

Throughout the last six years, the cruelty of the detention and deportation machine has increased. Advocates like the New York Immigration Coalition, Make The Road New York, The Bronx Defenders, the Immigrant Defense Project, labor unions, the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys, and many other groups have continued to lobby Albany. They all demand the passage of the New York for All Act. In February 2025, NY legislators even reintroduced the Act because the guidance from NYC’s then-mayor Eric Adams was legally confusing. But no legislative action was taken.

On January 12, 2026, after the murder of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, a NY For All: March For The Disappeared rally took place in Albany. Advocates returned once again to the state capitol on January 26–just days after the ICE murder of Alex Pretti–to demand passage of NY4All. Then, at the end of last month, Governor Kathy Hochul suddenly proposed her own Local Cops, Local Crimes Act. The purpose of Hochul’s act is to end the ‘weaponization’ of local police against their own communities by banning the 287(g) agreements that require them to cooperate with ICE. Even though many organizations, like the Asian American Federation, support this as a first step, the overwhelming preference of all groups is to pass the more substantial NY4All Act. 

There is concern that Hochul’s proposal might, in fact, preempt the NY4All Act and its more robust protections. As Assemblymember Dr. Anna Kelles pointed out, the 287(g) agreements that Hochul focused on are just one of the many proposals in the NY for All Act. Missing from Hochul’s proposal are additional safeguards, “designed to prevent immigration enforcement from happening through routine questioning, record keeping, database practices, probation operations, and behind-the-scenes information sharing.”

In addition to the NY4All Act, there are even more legislative proposals that Albany can pass to protect NY residents:

These many proposals are ready for the legislature to pass: let us demand our elected officials do more than just create media bites opposing ICE and, instead, take legislative action to protect our communities. A new proposal was even added this month, by Westchester’s State Senator Shelley Mayer, to prohibit ICE from gaining access to schools without a judicial order. The NYCLU, with the New York for All Coalition, published a press release urging Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart‑Cousins to work with the NY4All bill’s sponsors. One of the sponsors of the original 2020 New York for All Act said she had no explanation for why state Democrats have not pushed to vote on the bill:

“There is no reason to delay its passage any longer. As lawmakers, we have an obligation to not just speak out, but to actually pass legislation that will protect our immigrant communities.” —Julie Salazar, State Senator.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Sanctuary Keeps Us Safe: The Borders in Our Backyards

On a recent Saturday afternoon, you may have seen them on 37th Avenue or Northern Boulevard: neighbors out in front of local TD Banks, flyering. You may have taken a flyer in English, or Urdu, or Spanish, or Hindi or Chinese or Bangla. You may have gone into the TD Bank, as the flyer suggests, to complain to a manager about TD Bank allowing ICE to use their parking lot on Northern as a staging area for harassing and arresting neighbors in Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst.

The Trump regime’s mass deportation campaign—hyperfunded by citizens’ and immigrants’ tax dollars—is violating a whole lot of borders as they escalate their border wars against migration. The border between local private property and federal un/lawful operations is transgressed when ICE or CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) uses TD Bank or Home Depot property to launch the targeting and arrests of community members. The border between municipal policing and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents’ activities is violated when the federal government tries to coerce local police to participate in federal enforcement. (Governor Hochul, as reported above, has recently proposed legislation that would bar NYS police from cooperating with ICE).

Most profoundly, the border between targeting crime—of so-called “illegal” aliens—and systematically committing crimes is blown up when Trump’s ICE/ CBP minions engage in breaking and entering, jailing people who are never charged with a crime, murdering US citizens, and illegally holding thousands of US residents in detention deemed unlawful by US courts.

What is at stake in this reckless violation of borders between private and public, local policing and federal persecution, or fighting crime and carrying out crimes? The politics of state terror and generalized fear require that none of us feel there is refuge or a reliable haven from arbitrary, even fatal, federal government violence. A key reason that sanctuary laws are under attack by this federal government is precisely because they promise refuge from government harassment, surveillance, and targeting.

Sanctuary laws, including in New York City, try to affirm and regulate the border between community safety and federal immigration enforcement. Drawing on the power and sovereignty granted by the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution, local jurisdictions argue that sanctuary laws protect immigrant witnesses and victims of crime, and encourage all of us to participate in police and judicial processes without fear. While there is a wide range of sanctuary policies across different cities, counties, and states, almost all are aimed at promoting economic vibrancy and public safety within local communities, preventing local or state agencies from sharing protected data about citizenship status with the federal government, and allowing local or state governments to determine their own priorities and resource allocations. None of the policies actively prevent federal immigration authorities from carrying out their lawful operations.

Now the Trump regime is challenging sanctuary cities and states in the courts. Why? To stomp across the borders that we have drawn around community safety and immigrant solidarity. The DOJ dragged New York City into court in July 2025, and just last week New Jersey was sued by the DOJ for its sanctuary policies. 

This week, NY’s Attorney General filed an amicus brief defending New York City’s laws, stating, “Our city was built by immigrants, and this administration’s attempts to overturn local laws that protect them are unjust and unconstitutional.” On February 6, Mayor Mamdani signed an executive order strengthening the city’s sanctuary policies, requiring city agencies to comply with all relevant laws, and prohibiting ICE from entering city properties (schools, hospitals, shelters) without a judicial warrant.

“We keep us safe.” Let’s protect the borders between public assault and private space, between local jurisdiction and federal overkill. Between community safety and authoritarian threat.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

  • Support Jackson Heights Indivisible’s (JHI) email campaign asking TD Bank to not allow ICE staging operations in its parking lot. Email TD Bank at CustomerAdvocacyandInsights@td.com or Thomas.Rigg@td.com
  • Check JHI’s public calendar for local immigrant solidarity actions.
  • Attend NYIC’s Neighborhood Defense / KYR training at LaGuardia Community College on March 17 from 12 – 1:30 pm

 

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 01/11/2025

Posted on January 11, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

‘Happy New Year. You’re Deported’ was published by The Nation at the end of the year…in 2015…during the second term of the Obama presidency. Horrific, unacceptable, and unconscionable were key words the article used to describe Homeland Security’s plan to begin raids to deport families. Our first article for this new year 2025 looks at the ongoing state-sanctioned deportation threats to immigrant families and communities which promise to be significantly more aggressive than before. Just like a decade ago, our New York immigrant justice organizations today stand against the inhumanity of these policies. Even as our Mayor and Governor both talk about walking back our sanctuary policies and allowing more cooperation with ICE agents, hundreds of people rallied this past week at the state capitol in Albany demanding expanded legal protections for immigrant New Yorkers. 

Government intimidation will not stop the political, social, and community struggles of immigrant-led organizations and justice campaigns. We will, in fact, see community support strengthened this year when Make the Road NY holds a February ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new landmark center in Corona. Our second article spotlights Make the Road’s Deportation Defense Manual and practical guidance for community safety in 2025. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. A look at deportation threats–and protections–in NYC
  2. Make the Road NY’s blueprint for deportation defense

 

 

1. Cruel Futures—Deportation @NewYork

“By pledging to carry out the largest mass deportation in history, Trump isn’t just targeting immigrant communities, he’s attacking the very fabric of the country … Trump is creating a future where millions of families will live in constant fear of being torn apart, and where entire communities and economic sectors will be destabilized.” —Murad Awawdeh, director, NY Immigration Coalition (12/8/24) 

The destabilization promised by Trump and his anti-immigrant minions holds a special threat to New York State, where 4.5 million immigrant residents are at risk of having families, lives, and communities overturned by a mass deportation agenda. New York City is home to an estimated 412,000 of the state’s 672,000+ undocumented people, all of whom stand in the crosshairs of an incoming administration that aims for cruelty and racist scapegoating as a livestream political bloodsport.

Nearly half of NYC’s small businesses are run by immigrants, including undocumented owners (an estimated 60,500 undocumented entrepreneurs live in NY state). Close to 310,000 undocumented workers compose 7% of the city’s labor force. Undocumented workers in New York State pay about $3 billion in state and local taxes. Many immigrant households in our neighborhood are ‘mixed status’ with members living together who have both legal and unprotected immigration status—including over 351,000 citizen children statewide who live with an undocumented family member. Trump has announced he wants to make even more people ‘undocumented’ by stripping away time-limited legal protections like Temporary Protective Status (TPS), DACA, and humanitarian parole, which would expose thousands more people in Central Queens to deportation threats.

Assessments abound regarding what Trump 2.0 can really do, what they will really do, and how quickly. In recent US history, the vast majority of removals and detentions took place at the US-Mexico border. Deporting undocumented immigrants from New York City would require interior arrests and detentions, actions limited, in theory, by complex legal procedures and choked by overwhelmed immigration courts. But ‘expedited removal’ protocols—which Trump tried to ramp up during his first administration—would allow federal officials to remove anyone who cannot prove they are in the US lawfully, or that they have resided physically in the country for two years or more.

New York City is not without some protections, for now, against deportation frenzy. One of over 170 US cities that has established sanctuary policies, NYC since 1989 has created legal safe zones for immigrants threatened by federal overreach. In 2014 and 2018 under Mayor de Blasio, sanctuary laws were strengthened to preclude local cooperation with ICE’s ‘detainer requests’ (with exceptions for people convicted of serious crimes), and to mandate advance review by senior city officials of any request for help from federal immigration agents that might lead to deportation. In fiscal year 2022-23, the NYPD granted exactly zero of ICE’s requests to hold someone in custody for them. But attempts at the state level to expand immigrant protections have stalled, including the ambitious New York For All Act which has never gotten out of committee. And Mayor Adams has recently threatened to change the city’s existing sanctuary laws to facilitate cooperation with ICE and federal deportation.

As we speak, the city is also closing down the vast tent city at Floyd Bennett Field in southern Brooklyn, built to serve as a family shelter for recent migrants. The closure is due in part to a steady decline in the number of migrants arriving in NYC and being housed in city shelters, a 17% drop from 69,000 migrants in January 2024 to 57,400 in December. Local immigrant justice groups and the mutual aid group Floyd Bennett Field Neighbors also fought for the closure just before Trump’s inauguration: the tent shelter was built on federal land, and advocates feared the new administration could repurpose the shelter as an immigrant detention center.

Finally, the vulnerability of thousands of recently-arrived migrants in NYC to mass deportation is mitigated by the fact that the majority of new migrants are asylum seekers. Though referred to as “illegals” by Trump, and often presumed undocumented, many recent migrants are actually at the start of the years-long asylum process. They exist in a legal border zone, constructed precisely to protect asylum seekers from deportation during the proceedings.

Will legal border zones mean anything in the coming years? Will laws be blown up, and emergency states of exception proliferate? That uncertainty triggers everyone’s worst nightmares. As Murad Awawdeh of NY Immigration Coalition says: “We can’t allow this vision of cruelty, exclusion, and fear to become our reality.”  

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Support the New York For All Act which prohibits state and local resources from being used to enact inhumane federal deportation agendas.
  • Support the Dignity Not Detention Act which prevents NYS from entering in, or renewing, contracts for immigrant detention centers. Similar bills have passed in NJ, CA, WA, and IL. Sign on with your organization’s support for the bill.
  • Support the Access to Representation Act which guarantees the right to counsel for anyone, regardless of income, who comes before a New York immigration court, including in deportation hearings.  

2. Preparing for Trump’s Deportation Plans

“I think [Queens], in many ways, ends up being the kind of epicenter for the fights. I think a lot of the work that we’re going to have to do over the next four years, whether it’s deportation defense or education within the community, is going to be centered in our borough.”–Jagpreet Singh, organizer with Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) 

In the first weeks of 2025, our undocumented friends and neighbors are dreading the onset of Trump’s deportation plans. Many of the immigrant justice organizations are on high alert. Both DRUM and Make the Road NY say they have been preparing for the incoming presidential administration:

“Throughout this year, we’ve been preparing our community for this. We’ve been preparing basically this entire year. I think we’re in a better spot than we would have been if this was unexpected.” —Jagpreet Singh, organizer with DRUM  

 “It is a very dark time when New York City, which has always thought of itself as a sanctuary space, that our mayor would even willingly meet with this new border czar. It sets a tone that New York City is not for immigrants, and it puts a target on the back of immigrants.”—Luba Cortes, immigration lead organizer, Make the Road New York 

Make the Road NY, with the help of the Immigrant Defense Project, has created one of the most comprehensive preparedness resources: the Deportation Defense Manual. MTRNY’s website also offers current resources and downloadable flyers, including their recent Stay Safe! How to Protect Yourself in a Trump Administration.

The Defense Manual, available in Spanish and English, has three major parts and several useful appendixes. Part 1: Know Your Rights provides details for dealing with ICE at home, on the street, while driving, or at work. The main message from Part 1 is to not open the door unless ICE shows you a judicial warrant (sample on p. 19). Be calm and remain silent. You do not have to say anything or provide any information. (Your 4th and 5th Amendment rights should protect you from incriminating yourself and/or unlawful search and seizure.) You can say “I want to exercise my right to remain silent.” and “I do not consent to a search.” Ask for an interpreter. Ask to talk to an immigration attorney before signing anything. If you see someone being detained, take photos and write down all the information about the encounter. (Appendix D has a form to use.) Call the Immigrant Defense Project help line (212-725-6422).  Part I ends with extremely important guidance for how to protect your children by creating a plan now, and Appendix C has a comprehensive family preparedness checklist.

Part 2: Rapid Response to Raids provides information needed to support someone or a family after an ICE raid. What information do you need to have about the detained loved one? How to find a lawyer, and how to visit someone in detention? (pp. 28-31).

Part 3: Deportation Defense lists strategies to organize support for an individual who has been detained. How to organize the community to support a detained person? How to create a fundraising campaign or put pressure on government agencies? (pp. 42-44 and Appendix F).

Finally, Appendix G has multiple copyable flyers with rights information to distribute.

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 12/14/2024

Posted on December 14, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

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

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

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

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

1. Political Fault Line on Roosevelt Ave.

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

Answer Triangle, Roosevelt Avenue, May 2024

 

Answer Triangle, December 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Strategies for Future Immigrant Advocacy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Newsletter (JHISN)

 

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

 

JHISN Newsletter 09/28/2024

Posted on September 28, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As racist targeting of immigrants of color intensifies across the US, immigrant justice leaders are pushing back. In Ohio, the Haitian Bridge Alliance has filed criminal charges against Trump and JD Vance for their incendiary lies about Haitian immigrants living and working in Springfield. And NDLON (National Day Laborer Organizing Network) has just released an Instagram video debunking false narratives about recent migrant arrivals that promote hatred, and fracture solidarity between immigrant communities.

We join the call for pro-immigrant popular education with an article that helps us more accurately perceive the ‘statistics’ on the number of undocumented immigrants in the US. Then we look at the Republican-fueled nightmare in Springfield, with an eye for how the threat of expanding fascism—targeting immigrants and other historically marginalized people—has arrived.  

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Confronting the Fear of Big Numbers: Counting Undocumented Immigrants
  2. Fascism in Uniform Marches on Springfield

 

1. A simpler approach to undocumented population counts

Recent attention has focused on Ohio and the ridiculous social media lies amplified by Trump during the presidential debate. Republicans became hyper-obsessed about Haitians living in Ohio, who are legally present through the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. In Ohio, almost 13,000 people have TPS approval, or just one-tenth of one percent of the state’s entire population. Yet to Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, this minuscule population represents a “terrible tragedy” for the people in his state.

This Ohio situation exemplifies the difficulty of accurately visualizing any large numbers describing immigrants. It is easy for politicians and the corporate media to utter worrisome-sounding numbers in the millions because such numbers have no practical meaning in the human mind.

Republicans have leveraged that impracticality to argue that the number of people here with, and without, ‘authorization’ is massively large and a threat. Although there are bipartisan differences around immigration issues, the Democrats have also embraced the perceived ‘threat’ of immigrants, as outlined in their recently proposed and failed border bill.

When discussing unauthorized immigrants, things get murkier due to difficult data. Since 1996 the federal government has published official estimates—these have been challenged as a dramatic undercount. There are statistics shared by organizations that conduct research about immigrants—these can conflict based on the organization’s bias. There are public data sets such as Syracuse University’s TRAC Data which allow anyone to delve into the data—these require an understanding of how to analyze numbers. All data sources take effort to find, read, and understand. The numbers spewed by Donald Trump, or Tucker Carlson, are easy, simplistic, and wrong. 

But, sometimes simplification can help us understand reality.

Instead of looking at large numbers, we can ask the following question: how many people are there in the US for each undocumented immigrant? State population data, Pew research on immigrants, and an infographic from a large data analyst company offers a simple answer: in the US there is just one undocumented immigrant for every 65 people. That may initially sound like lots of unauthorized people until we realize that 1 in 10 is just 10% of the population; 1 in 20 is only 5%; 1 in 30 is merely 3.3%. So 1 in 65 is a paltry 1.5% of the entire population. Republicans are telling 98.5% of the country to worry that this tiny group is a massive threat to the nation’s very being. As the regional and state populations differ, it is interesting to see how the answer to this question changes based on each location we look at.

  • We can compare Ohio, where there are 91 people for each unauthorized individual (1.2%), with New York State which has 30 people per unauthorized individual (3.3%).
  • Throughout the four states that border Mexico, we find there is one undocumented person for every 28 people. That is only 3.6% of the California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas populations combined.
  • In the 16 states that have a land or water border with Canada, the number changes to 1 in 89 people. That is slightly more than 1% of all those state populations combined.
  • Of the 14 states that border only with another US state, it averages to 1 in 77 people. Just 1.3%.
  • For the 16 remaining states, with an ocean border, the numbers change to just 1 in 44. That is only 2.4% of those populations.

The simplified number also tells a story about states traditionally voting for a Republican or Democrat presidential candidate and the 7 swing states in the coming 2024 election. In the 25 typically Republican states we see 1 unauthorized person in 81 (1.2%); that becomes 1 in 40 for the 18 typically Democrat states (2.5%); and the 7 swing states come in at 1 undocumented immigrant out of 48 (2.1%).

If people in critical swing states can see these more straightforward numbers, they may come to understand that the lies Trump, Vance, and many others obsessively make about Americans being replaced and endangered by ‘illegal’ immigrants are not substantiated by the data. With that knowledge, they can vote with understanding, not unfounded fear.

2. Then they came for the Haitians…

Our August 17 newsletter argued that Donald Trump’s demand for mass deportation was on the cutting edge of a rising fascist movement that is beginning to move into the mainstream of US politics. Now the ongoing racist political attack on documented Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, makes it clear that this poison is spreading fast. 

Most of the basic ugly facts of the Springfield situation are well reported: The baldfaced lies by Trump and Vance alleging that Haitians are eating other residents’ pets, bomb threats that paralyzed the city, requests by Catholic bishops and government officials, including the Republican governor, for Trump and Vance to stop the damaging falsehoods and threats. We have learned from mainstream media that Trump has doubled down on his plan to deport Haitians in Springfield on Day One if he gets elected (despite the fact they have federally-registered TPS protections), promising that this would kick off a mass deportation campaign that, he warns, will be “bloody.”

One thing that has been less widely reported is the story of the Weber family—a story that happened on the sidelines of the national news. What happened to the Webers is frightening and damaging. But it also exemplifies how anti-immigrant hate, and especially hate towards Black migrants, quickly mutates beyond the issue of immigration, opening the door to an increase in fascist activism that targets all marginalized groups, regardless of immigration status. 

Chelsea Shirk Weber told the Dayton Jewish Observer that she, her husband, and their 4-year-old daughter went to a Jazz and Blues Fest in downtown Springfield on August 10. As they were leaving, they saw a squad of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe marching in formation, complete with red uniforms, swastika flags and automatic weapons. Hearing people yelling and other loud noises, the family moved swiftly to their car. But as the Webers tried to drive away in traffic, they and other motorists were surrounded by four Blood Tribe members who pointed rifles at their cars. There were no police visible nearby. “Go back to f-ing Africa,” the fascists yelled. Chelsea’s husband accelerated, running a red light to get away.

Blood Tribe claims credit for creating and spreading the rumor about Haitian migrants eating pets, starting their online campaign months ago. They consider it a victory that the Trump campaign (and 53% of Trump supporters) have adopted their lies. 

Photo Credit: Chelsea Shirk Weber

Weber took a photograph of some of the fascists—the image above. When she posted it on the Facebook pages of Springfield and of Clark County, there was a massive pile-on by right-wing commenters who either supported Blood Tribe or alleged that the photo was fake. Soon Weber’s post was taken down. Five minutes later, the City of Springfield posted a bland statement expressing “concern” about an outside hate group that had been in town. The mayor, Rob Rue, was quoted as saying that “Nothing happened, except they expressed their First Amendment rights. Our Police Division was aware and in control the entire time.”

Weber does not agree:

“”It was just completely disappointing that the government said, ‘Oh, they’re just exercising their First Amendment right and they did no harm.’ Tell that to my 4-year-old, who is completely traumatized. I’m 37 and I was scared s—less. How do you explain it to a 4-year-old?’ The Observer provided Police Chief Elliott with a transcript of Weber’s interview. Despite repeated attempts to reach out to Elliott for a follow-up interview, she declined to comment.” —Dayton Jewish Observer, 8/22/24

The Springfield events demonstrate how Blood Tribe and other other fascists like the Proud Boys and the KKK are using racist attacks on immigrants and calls for mass deportation to raise their public profile, recruit, and normalize their full program of hate against people of color, women, LGBT people, Jews and leftists. And the concentration camps the fascists hope to build for millions of undocumented people are intended for many other perceived enemies as well.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

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

 

JHISN Newsletter 08/31/2024

Posted on August 31, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

We write as the violence in Palestine continues and intensifies, with Israel this week launching a new, ferocious attack on the West Bank and in particular the Jenin refugee camp. It is easy in the US to forget that the 1948 founding of the state of Israel took place by turning hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into refugees; Palestinians, however, do not forget. Our newsletter offers a brief report on immigrant justice groups’ recent solidarity work with Palestinians under the US-backed genocidal siege, while looking more broadly at the kinds of political action and expression available to different kinds of non-profits. We also update you on the ongoing fight for economic and legal rights for New York City’s street vendors, who are largely immigrant workers.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Rally for Street Vendor Reform Platform 
  2. Make the Road Action: the difference non-profit status can make

1. For NYC Street Vendors, the Struggle Continues

“I’m a street vendor in Queens, New York … I sell Mexican food. We’re here to demand that the City Council pass a reform of the street vending rules. We’re tired of being criminalized… We’re thousands of parents, many of them single mothers who don’t have other sources of income for their families than working in the streets… We’re working people who want to be part of the economy of this country.” –Cleotilde Juarez, Democracy Now (August 24, 2024)

Over 600 street vendors marched from Union Square to City Hall on August 15, calling for passage of the Street Vendor Reform Platform, a set of four new bills making its way through the City Council. Part of a years-long struggle for the decriminalization of street vending, and for economic opportunity and protection for vendors, the rally emphasized that vendors are desperate for a legal landscape that is predictable and fair. Of the nearly 20,000 vendors in our city, the vast majority are immigrants, people of color, women and veterans.

Currently, more than 9,800 New Yorkers are on the city’s waitlist—which is now closed to new applicants—for mobile food vending permits, with over 10,900 people waiting for licenses for general vending. Guadalupe Sosa, a vendor and rally participant, said she has been waiting a quarter-century for a permit for her family’s snow cone business, started by her mom over 20 years ago. The inefficient waitlist ‘system’ forces unlicensed street vendors to work in a precarious shadow economy where they are subject to harassment and $1000 city fines.

The Street Vendor Reform Platform, if passed through the City Council, would ensure vendors increased access to legal permits; reduce criminalization of vending; and create a new division of Street Vendor Assistance within the city’s Department of Small Business Services. The NYC Independent Budget Office reports that passage of the Reform Platform could earn the city $17 million in new revenue.

But instead of supporting just reform of the city’s vendor policies, Mayor Adams has played games with hard-working people’s lives. In May 2022, the Mayor publicly embraced a set of reform recommendations made by the Street Vendor Advisory Board (see newsletter 07-09-22). But by Summer 2023, Adams had transferred enforcement of vendor regulations from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to the Department of Sanitation—aided by the NYPD. He denounced our own vibrant Corona Plaza vendor market as “dangerous,” and within days the Sanitation Department police targeted the Plaza, ransacking vendor goods and confiscating carts, handing out $1000 tickets and shutting down more than 80 local vendors (see newsletter 08-26-23).

The City Council’s bundled Street Vendor Reform Platform would begin to address the dysfunction and sanctioned violence of the city’s current vending regulations. As local Councilmember Shekar Krishnan states: “Street vendors provide a lifeline for many immigrant New Yorkers. They are our smallest businesses …. No vendor should face jail time and a criminal conviction for trying to feed their families.”  

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Give NYC street vendors your business!
  • Sign the NYC Street Vendor Reform petition supporting the Reform Platform.
  • Become a member, donate, or volunteer with the immigrant-led Street Vendor Project.

2. Political Action: Using All the Levers

The immigrant justice groups in our neighborhood don’t hold back when it comes to responding to pressing political issues. One recent example is their expressions and acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. On July 25, during Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the US, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) demanded his arrest as a war criminal and called for a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo. Damayan has joined protests against genocide in Palestine. Chhaya has called for “peace in the region, the return of Israeli hostages, an immediate ceasefire, and the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

In a related initiative, Astoria Assembly member Zohran Mamdani and Senator Jabari Brisport are advancing Palestine solidarity legislation originally sponsored by the Adalah Justice Project and supported by DRUM and many other progressive organizations. Called “Not On Our Dime!,” the legislation would forbid New York State nonprofits from “aiding or abetting activity in support of illegal Israeli settlements in violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 or illegal pursuant to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

Most local grassroots immigrant justice groups are registered as 501(c)(3) non-profits. This status has lots of benefits, including the ability to accept tax-deductible donations, access grants and government programs, tax-free purchases and indemnification from personal liability. But there is a significant limitation: 501(c)(3)s are not allowed to take sides in political elections. 

Make the Road New York (MRNY) is one of our local 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and in that role has been similarly outspoken on a range of political struggles that they see as sibling struggles for “respect and dignity,” including the Palestinian freedom struggle. But Make the Road has also evolved into a national organization, with affiliates in Connecticut, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In 2009, its members decided to find ways to participate in electoral campaigns, including national elections. The vehicle they gradually developed for this work is Make the Road Action (MRA). 

MRA was organized in partnership with the Center for Popular Democracy, a group dedicated to “building organizational infrastructure” for progressive groups. MRA is a different kind of non-profit: a 501(c)(4). Ironically, this type of group became popular after the Supreme Court’s reactionary 2010 Citizens United decision, specifically because it allowed corporations (including certain non-profits) to directly endorse candidates. 

501(c)(4) non-profits aren’t supposed to coordinate formally with campaign organizations, but they can accept funds from most sources, including political action committees and foundations, for their own initiatives to support candidates. MRA started slowly: as late as 2017, its tax return listed donations of $347,149, and a net loss of -$359,321. But by 2022, MRA reported revenue of almost six million dollars, mostly from gifts and grants. 

In 2020, MRA supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. This summer, they backed Jamaal Bowman’s unsuccessful Congressional re-election campaign. And then on August 15, the non-profit announced its endorsement of Kamala Harris for President—its first endorsement in a presidential race. That decision was ratified by large assemblies of hundreds of activists. According to The Guardian, the assemblies discussed “issues including housing affordability, the climate crisis and the US government’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza. But immigration rights were the main focus of deliberations.”

MRA’s financial resources will be barely a drop in the bucket for an election contest that is burning through hundreds of millions of dollars. But Make the Road is known for its prowess in grassroots organizing, especially in working class Latin American immigrant communities. MRA activists have a plan: to knock on a million doors in support of the Harris-Walz ticket, mostly in the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania and Nevada. They have already started.

“Our members are excited. Harris is a woman of color, and a person who comes from an immigrant family. So they see their children or themselves in this candidate. They feel that she is someone who at least understands where we are coming from….We talked about this deeply, because the Biden administration, and by extension, Kamala Harris as Biden’s vice-president, have not been perfect on immigration. When we’re doing endorsements, we’re not picking a savior. We’re picking someone we think we can move and push to the right direction.”  —Theo Oshiro, MRNY

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Support the ‘Not on Our Dime!’ Act.
  • Follow Make the Road Action (MRA) on Instagram.

 

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.