Advocates rallied at Metropolis Corridor for extra protections for undocumented New Yorkers.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Dozens of advocates, together with a number of NYC Council members, rallied at Metropolis Corridor on Monday, demanding extra legislative help for undocumented immigrant New Yorkers.
Led by Brooklyn Council Member Alexa Avilés, chair of the council’s Immigration Committee, the rally centered on getting 4 payments handed to guard town’s immigrant neighborhood. On the forefront of the bundle is Intro. 214, which might maintain metropolis companies, together with the NYPD, accountable underneath present legal guidelines, permitting immigrants to sue when “their rights have been violated.”
Fellow Brooklyn Council Member Shahana Hanif, who’s sponsoring the laws, charged that metropolis companies have “repeatedly” damaged sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines.
“City agencies unlawfully share information with federal immigration authorities, with no training, accountability, or enforcement mechanism when our laws are violated,” Hanif mentioned. “My bill, the NYC Trust Act, would hold the NYPD, Department of Corrections (DOP), and DOP accountable to the laws already on our books by creating a private right of action–empowering those whose rights have been violated to bring suit and seek justice.”
Dozens of advocates, together with a number of NYC Council members, rallied at Metropolis Corridor on Monday demanding extra legislative help for undocumented New Yorkers. Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Complementing this invoice is Council Member Tiffany Caban’s Intro. 1412, which might prohibit federal companies conducting immigration enforcement from establishing store on Correction Division property. This might counter an government order Mayor Eric Adams’ administration issued in April that sought to re-establish ICE’s Rikers Island workplace; the Council efficiently sued the mayor to cease the order from being enforced.
“Federal agencies that don’t normally do immigration enforcement are being used to terrorize our communities, beating up seniors, separating families, shackling pregnant mothers, and separating six-year olds from their father,” Caban defined. “Our bill clarifies New York’s sanctuary laws, stops ICE from setting up in our jails, and ensures every New Yorker is protected, no matter which agency is weaponized against us.”
Two extra payments centered on immigrant protections embody Intro. 268, which might require town to show signage informing folks of their rights when partaking with federal authorities; and Intro. 1272, which might prohibit employers from checking the employment authorization standing of an applicant who has not been supplied employment.
NYC Council members launched 4 payments to help immigrants in NYC.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Council members on the rally, which was held upfront of a listening to to overview the record of payments, spoke about NYC’s historical past as an immigrant metropolis. Immigrant populations, they mentioned, make up almost 40% of town’s present inhabitants, and added that they’ve been chargeable for innumerable cultural and financial contributions.
“It has been nearly a year since Donald Trump took office and began waging war on our immigrant communities,” Avilés mentioned. “We have seen New Yorkers violently kidnapped in the hundreds at regular court proceedings, we have seen people ripped from their homes, outside schools, on the streets, at work, and beyond, Families have been torn apart. Students and children have disappeared from their classrooms. Today, we are reaffirming the laws that have worked to protect our city.”
New York News reached out to the Mayor’s Workplace of Immigrant Affairs for his or her feedback on the proposed laws. A Metropolis Corridor spokesperson defined that the three affected companies — NYPD, DOC and DOP — are in dialogue on the implications of the payments and the way they’ll function with present legal guidelines. For these causes, all three companies submitted written testimony for at present’s listening to.
“Our team is proud of what we have accomplished over the past four years: educating more than 40,000 immigrant New Yorkers about their rights, assisting 43,000 immigrant New Yorkers with their immigration cases, responding to nearly 160,000 calls through our immigration legal hotline, and providing English language classes to 18,000 immigrant New Yorkers — all while helping to care for a total of over 240,000 migrants and asylum seekers, as well as millions of other longtime immigrant New Yorkers who call our city home,” the spokesperson defined.
Council members on the rally urged their colleagues to cross all 4 payments earlier than town legislature ends its present session this month.
