Tag: Queens

JHISN Newsletter 04/27/2024

Posted on April 27, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

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

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

1. Casino Project Divides Neighborhood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHAT CAN WE DO?

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

2. How the courts help and hinder TPS

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

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

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 09/09/2023

Posted on September 9, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

JHISN has been around for just over six years—a youngster in relation to many local immigrant justice groups. But we are old enough to have learned the difficult lesson that many justice groups know too well: hard-won activist victories are also hard to sustain. In this newsletter, we report on how the Biden administration and corporate capitalism are undermining New Jersey activists’ successful attempt to shut down privately contracted immigrant detention centers in the state. La lucha continúa …The struggle goes on.

We are delighted to also offer an introduction to a new neighbor—The World’s Borough Bookshop just opened its doors on 73rd St and 34th Ave. We encourage you to visit and explore this wonderful community space.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. New bookstore comes to Jackson Heights
  2. Notorious privately-run detention jail in NJ supported by Biden’s DOJ

1. The World’s Borough Gets a New Bookstore

Seven years ago, Adrian Cepeda had a dream: open a bookstore here in Jackson Heights. Today that dream has an address: 3406 73rd Street. The World’s Borough Bookshop, located just off the neighborhood’s Open Street, launched for business on August 5. Its shelves are filled with Latinx and Black fiction and nonfiction, literature by Desi authors, Queens writers, manga comics, and a selection of used books. There’s a colorful kids’ room with children’s books in Portuguese, Bangla, Mandarin, and Urdu.

 “Por y Para La Communidad” (“for and by the community”) reads the banner at the entrance. With comfortable couches inside, and tables on the sidewalk, the world’s borough bookstore invites students-after-school, parents with excited kids, or teachers looking for an English translation of García Márquez, to linger for conversation, or to just sit and read in the late summer sun. Cepeda, who curates the store’s selection of BIPOC-only (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) books himself, is looking to the community for ideas and desires about what our local bookstore should be. “I want to make it a very Queens bookstore,” he smiles.

Growing up in Jackson Heights, Cepeda credits his mom—who also grew up in the neighborhood—with nourishing his love of reading with trips to the JH Public Library. But he is committed to making the World’s Borough Bookstore attractive to both readers and non-readers alike, a place where people can fall in love with books for the very first time.

2. Biden Continues Expanding 40-Year Policy of For-Profit Detention

In August of 2021, New Jersey implemented Sanctuary Law AB5207 banning ICE contracts with private detention facilities—a victory for the years-long activist struggle to close down private, for-profit detention. The law successfully resulted in closing three New Jersey detention centers, leaving just one operating: the Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC). However, private contractor CoreCivic challenged AB5207 as unconstitutional for violating the Supremacy Clause, which gives federal laws precedence over state laws. The federal contract with CoreCivic to house migrants in EDC was set to expire in September of this year and was an opportunity for Biden to follow through on campaign promises to end private detention. 

As a presidential candidate, Biden said, “No business should profit from the suffering of desperate people fleeing violence,” and proclaimed private detention centers, “should not exist. And we are working to close all of them.” Although he signed an executive order last January to end the use of private prisons under the Department of Justice (DOJ), that order does not apply to immigrant detention because Homeland Security is not under the DOJ. 

Last March, after President Biden’s 2024 budget proposal increased ICE and Border Patrol funding, Make The Road NY joined with New Jersey-based immigration support groups NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ), Wind of Spirit NJ, MinKwon Center NJ, and AFSC Immigrants Rights Program to condemn him. Erik Cruz, of the NJAIJ, accused the Biden administration of supporting “a rollback to his predecessor’s worst and cruelest policies.” Soon after, 223 organizations signed a letter demanding asylum seekers and other migrants not be placed behind bars in immigration detention.

After Title 42 was repealed in May, a new set of immigration restrictions was introduced, and a review launched by senior immigration officials identified about two dozen detention centers to be scaled back, reformed, or closed. Only three closed. During 2022, the Biden administration actually increased the number of detainees held in private facilities to 90%–compared to 80% at the end of Trump’s administration. Revenues for one private prison company, GEO Group, reportedly jumped by more than $1 billion (an almost 40% increase).

Then, in July, the CoreCivic case against AB5207 gained a boost from Biden’s DOJ which filed an amicus brief supporting the CoreCivic injunction. The DOJ called the Elizabeth facility “mission critical” because of its proximity to Newark and JFK airports; they described direct flights out of the United States as “crucial” for removals. Instead of acknowledging that detainees could be released to family and community, Biden’s DOJ filing highlighted the increased costs for out-of-state relocations and transportation to alternative detention facilities which limits access to families and legal counsel. It also focused on possible worst-case scenarios saying shutting down the center could lead to the release of “dangerous noncitizens.”

50 local groups, including DetentionWatch, called the Biden administration’s support of the CoreCivic suit “bitterly disappointing but unsurprising.” They called on NJ Governor Murphy to shut down EDC, reminding everyone that detainees had long complained about problematic conditions at EDC: the facility is set up to have just one bathroom for every 40 people; birds inside reportedly defecated on beds; people were abused by staff; and there has been a lack of sanitary pads. 

A “free them all” rally was held on August 20th to defend AB5207 and demand the facility’s closure. Five days later, ten New Jersey congressional leaders joined with 41 immigrant support organizations and delivered a letter to the DOJ expressing concern for the Biden Administration’s support of the private prison company. Li Adorno of Movimiento Cosecha said later of Biden, “He could actually shut down the Elizabeth Center at any moment, any given day …This is it—his time to shine, and he’s not shining.”

Instead of shining, Biden did nothing to close EDC, nor end the contract. At the end of August, Judge Kirsch declared AB5207 unconstitutional and within a day a $20 million 12-month contract between ICE and CoreCivic was signed. Judge Kirsch had ruled the NJ law was “naked interference” with federal immigration enforcement and was “a dagger aimed at the heart of the federal government’s immigration enforcement mission and operations.” Kathy O’Leary, the Director of Pax Christi and one of many activists, including Unidad Latina and Movimiento Cosecha, protesting the ruling outside the federal immigration building in Newark, responded to his grotesque dagger statement:

“We cannot stab a dagger into the heart of ICE. It has no heart, it’s not a person. The people in ICE’s cages—they can bleed, they can shed tears. That’s who we should be concerned about.” 

Yanet Candelario of The Mami Chelo Foundation, who spent time inside the walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, said when Biden was elected president, she was happy. “I thought he would end the Trump era of terror, where children were separated from their parents and kept in cages like animals.” She continued, “I believed he would make a difference in a country where immigrants have fewer rights…I don’t think Biden knows that people are dying in immigration detention because they have been denied medical attention, but I also expect him to keep his promises and end a system that denies us our humanity.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

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

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 04/17/2021

Posted on April 17, 2021 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As spring starts to bloom around us, we offer a newsletter with a hopeful eye on the future, and a giant hurrah for immigrant workers’ victorious struggle to secure pandemic relief. ‘Casa de Futuros’ (‘A House of Futures’) is how Centro Corona describes their collective space and cultural center, built in the heart of Corona. We share a history of Centro Corona’s vibrant immigrant-led space and invite your support of their fundraising campaign to cover rent for 2021. And for a third newsletter in a row, we report on the historic—and ultimately successful!—fight to include billions of dollars in the New York state budget for undocumented workers, including tens of thousands of Queens residents.

Newsletter highlights:

  1. Help keep Centro Corona thriving!
  2. Victory for the Fund Excluded Workers coalition

1. Centro Corona — a house of futures

Long before COVID-19 descended on us and ‘mutual aid’ suddenly became a common phrase, Centro Corona already seemed to echo the Mutualistas tradition from another time and culture (Texas and Mexico of the 1800’s). Like those Mutualistas, which provided for working class families, this Central Queens community house places cooperation, and community protection and support as guiding principles of action. Their action recently has been running a fundraising campaign to ensure that Centro Corona can continue operating within and for the community for the rest of the year.

Born of the creative arts, Centro Corona has emerged from multiple pasts. In 2006, Tania Bruguera conceived of the Immigrant Movement International (IMI); an artist’s examination of the political representation and conditions facing immigrants in various cities in the world. With funding from the Queens Museum in 2011 her “arte útil” concept was finally implemented as a storefront called IMI-Corona on Roosevelt Avenue. The local community was invited to use the space, with the intent that the cultural arts site would become a civic agent as a host of workshops. 

Local artists and culture bearers with longstanding ties to the largely immigrant community In Corona began making their own work within the space. By 2013, they pushed to create a community council aiming to develop independence from the IMI. Their reimagining process was interrupted when the landlord displaced them in 2018. For a non-capitalist community space to be ousted by a landlord seeking financial benefit was contemptuous, but the volunteer members came together and rebuilt Centro Corona at 47th ave at 104th Street. They continued using the experience, leadership, and knowledge of people from the working-class, migrant, youth, women, gender non-conforming, trans and queer communities to generate a self-determined and collectively-imagined future.

Some of Centro Corona’s coordinators and volunteers note that when people meet and gather, there is a lot of celebration as well as social justice education. Half of the equation of their success is when someone shows up with certain skills and interests to share. The other half is when those same people come back to support the homework help, or sex education, or community safety training programs. People come back to continue being together.

“During the year, the space is full of political organizing meetings & cultural events, film screenings, poetry readings, celebrations, and discussion groups. Many campaigns have been born there, many more will be born. This space constantly generates new ideas and connections.” Jenny Akchin @jennyaction

COVID forced doors to close in March 2020. Joining with Queens Neighborhoods United and Project Hajra, Centro Corona developed a Mutual Aid network which, in just 13 weeks, assisted over 80 families. Providing food deliveries, supporting health needs, and giving cash assistance, volunteers also conduct well-being check-ins, offer death and grief support, as well as joining virtual hangouts for conversations as a break from daily problems. They supported hundreds of families in the community during a time when federal and state government programs refused. 

The winter brought concerns of a second wave of COVID, financial stressors from more lost work, and worries about their kids’ emotional and mental health. But recently the conversations seem to have changed as people are starting to think of new futures. Families in the Mutual Aid program have shifted from talking about uncertainty about COVID vaccination news to discussions about people getting vaccinated. And Centro Corona is looking at what its future holds. How will they use their garage/garden space for community gatherings? Will they be able to re-open as they hope in the summer? What will it mean to reopen while COVID is still with us? They know it will not look exactly the same as before … with direction from the community they are determining the best ways to use the space. 

Unlike the Mutualistas that were almost entirely shuttered by the Great Depression, we have an opportunity to ensure Centro Corona continues to be a house of futures for our community. Their primary expense is not the programs they run, but the monthly $3,800 they pay in rent for their space. Last week, as part of a fundraising campaign to raise $50,000 to keep their space for the rest of the year, Centro Corona entertained their community on facebook live events. We encourage our readers to donate what you can to support Centro Corona as a shared community space of collective reflection, encouragement, mutual aid, artistic expression, political action, popular education, cultural thriving and survival—a place of nourishment for the body, mind, and spirit. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. $2.1 Billion towards Budget Justice for Excluded Workers

“Today, our work has been recognized. Our dignity has been recognized, and our dignity has been lifted by passing this fund …. It is more than $2.1 billion dollars. It is actually a recognition of undocumented workers. This is the future. This is the future that we’re leaving behind for our kids, and a reminder for those who doubted us. This is proof that we did it.” –Ana Ramirez, original hunger striker (QNS.com, 4/8/21)

 In what is being hailed as an historic victory, New York State passed a budget on April 6 that includes a $2.1 billion fund to support workers—mostly immigrant and undocumented—who have not yet received one dollar in federal or state support since the start of the pandemic. Over 192,000 undocumented New Yorkers, who pay an estimated $1.4 billion in annual taxes, lost their jobs during the crisis and will now be eligible for a one-time payment of up to $15,600 in retroactive unemployment and stimulus benefits. For undocumented workers in Jackson Heights and beyond, the fund is a lifeline to help cover missed rent payments and accumulated debt as workers struggle to avoid economic devastation. The Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that 290,000 workers statewide will benefit from the Excluded Workers Fund, including up to 58,000 Queens residents.

 The first-in-the-nation fund for excluded immigrant workers is the result of months of mobilization and strategizing by immigrant justice groups and their allies, including Make the Road NY, New York Immigration Coalition, and New York Communities for Change. In mid-March, the Fund Excluded Workers coalition launched a 23-day hunger strike by undocumented immigrants, which ended only after successful passage of the workers fund.

 The hunger strike did not secure the full $3.5 billion fund that would have provided equity with what other workers have received in benefits and stimulus checks over the past year. Recently incarcerated people were excluded from accessing the fund. And last-minute restrictions introduced by Governor Cuomo’s team threaten to exclude many undocumented workers from the highest tier of benefits. Activists were careful to affirm the huge victory for immigrant workers, while condemning the inequities that continue to plague working class communities of color that have been most ravaged by the pandemic. 

 “[W]hile we celebrate today’s news, the fact that workers even needed to fight for this funding is a travesty. The pandemic has made clear that the well-being of our communities is interconnected and the exclusion of some people hurts us all. It has also laid bare racist exclusions in our social safety net that keep some workers from basic support that’s essential to survival. We hope that people across the country will be inspired by the bravery of workers in New York to end this unjust system once and for all.” – Bianca Guerrero, coordinator, Fund Excluded Workers coalition

 And, indeed, inspired by New York, over 30 undocumented workers in New Jersey are now on a hunger strike demanding that the state provide unemployment and stimulus benefits for essential, but excluded, immigrant workers. 

 WHAT CAN WE DO?

  • Celebrate. Worker and immigrant struggles can and do win! Support the hunger strikers in NJ, and follow Make the Road New Jersey here. Si se puede!
  • Share this guide re: accessing the fund with neighbors, activists, and community members.

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.