Immigration advocates in New York are expressing outrage and alarm over proposed plans by the incoming Donald J. Trump administration to revoke a federal coverage that has restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers from arresting Caribbean and different immigrants at or close to “delicate areas,” corresponding to homes of worship, faculties, and hospitals with out prior approval from supervisors. Immigration advocates mentioned on Wednesday that Trump is predicted to repeal this coverage as early as his first day in workplace, on Jan. 20, 2025, alongside different immigration coverage modifications set to be carried out.
“Cruelty, not public security or safety, is Trump’s goal,” Murad Awawdeh, president and chief government officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella coverage and advocacy group that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights teams all through New York, instructed Caribbean Life.
“By directing assaults on immigrants to delicate areas like faculties, church buildings, and hospitals, he exhibits a callous disregard for susceptible youngsters and the general public security of each New Yorker,” added Awawdeh, chief of one of many largest and most numerous newcomer populations in the US.
Furthermore, he mentioned this coverage change could have a “chilling impression on immigrant households, who could concern sending their youngsters to high school or accessing the companies they’re entitled to and have to maintain their households wholesome.
“Focusing on immigrants for arrests and deportation is harmful and diverts sources away from initiatives that truly promote security and well-being,” Awawdeh mentioned. “New York should meet this second by refusing to take part in ICE’s merciless, politicized immigration agenda.
“It’s extra pressing than ever for New York to go the New York For All Act to make sure that all residents can reside with out concern,” he added. “We urge Governor (Kathy) Hochul and our state elected leaders to take motion to guard immigrant households and defend the values that make New York a beacon of hope and alternative.”
Awawdeh mentioned the New York for All Act would prohibit state and native officers from imposing federal immigration legal guidelines, funneling folks into ICE custody, and sharing delicate data with federal immigration authorities.
He mentioned the Act would additionally be sure that Caribbean and different immigrants in custody are knowledgeable of their rights earlier than ICE interviews.
Moreover, Awawdeh mentioned the Act would prohibit ICE and the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) company from coming into personal areas of state and native property and not using a judicial warrant and start limiting their entry to state data databases.
Natalia Aristizabal, deputy director of Make the Street New York, one other immigrant advocacy group with over 28,000 members, additionally instructed Caribbean Life that the main points rising on Wednesday from the incoming Trump administration are “horrifying however, sadly, in no way stunning.”
“We all know that Trump and his allies intend to hold out devastating insurance policies that can irreparably hurt our communities, separate households, and traumatize folks simply attempting to go about their lives,“ she mentioned.
“That’s why it’s extra vital than ever for our native and state officers to step up and take actual, concrete actions to guard our group, corresponding to passing the New York for All Act, which is able to additional strengthen the protections of immigrant New Yorkers in terms of immigration enforcement,“ she added.
“Everybody ought to be capable of go to church and faculty with out fearing that they’ll by no means see their family members once more,“ continued Aristizabal, noting that Governor Hochul has mentioned that she intends to unveil insurance policies within the subsequent few weeks that shield households in New York State.
“We’ll maintain her accountable to delivering for New York’s immigrant communities,“ Aristizabal mentioned. “And, as an alternative of cozying as much as the Trump administration and assembly with incoming Border Czar Tom Homan, Mayor (Eric) Adams must uphold New York Metropolis’s present legal guidelines that defend immigrants and create further protections.”
Throughout a press convention earlier this month, Adams, who’s battling bribery and fraud prices in a federal corruption investigation beneath the Biden administration, mentioned he’s prepared to collaborate with Trump officers on deportation coverage.
“Those that are right here committing crimes, robberies, capturing at cops, raping harmless folks, have been a hurt to our nation,“ Adams mentioned. “I might love to take a seat down with the Border Czar [Tom Homan] and listen to his ideas on how we’re going to handle those that are harming our residents.”
Immigration advocates say lots of the migrants crossing the southern border of the US and arriving in New York are nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Trump had campaigned on conducting mass deportation of immigrants, together with Haitians if re-elected to a second time period.
Through the Presidential marketing campaign, Trump repeatedly falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been consuming the pets, together with canines and cats, of their neighbors.
Knowledge from ICE, for the interval Oct. 1, 2017, by means of Oct. 31, 2020, reveals that ICE performed 63 deliberate and 5 exigent arrests at or close to a delicate location throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace.
Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), mentioned, “immigration enforcement has at all times required a stability.“
He mentioned that, previously, presidents of each the Democratic and Republican events “have acknowledged that merely as a result of it might be lawful to make arrests at hospitals and faculties doesn’t imply it’s humane or clever public coverage.
“We don’t need folks with contagious illnesses too scared to go to the hospital or youngsters going uneducated due to poorly thought of deportation insurance policies,“ Gelernt mentioned.
Aristizabal mentioned: “All of us need to reside in security with our households. New York’s leaders have to work to make this a actuality.”
