Legislators and group leaders on Thursday joined 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, in rallying at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery in opposition to what they characterised as “the devastating new federal directive that strips longstanding protections from immigrant New Yorkers who search assets in delicate areas together with hospitals, colleges and homes of worship.”
“The Trump administration’s harmful coverage change exposes tens of millions of New Yorkers — particularly our most weak neighbors — to immigration enforcement at delicate areas,” stated Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s president and chief government officer.
He stated these areas embrace: Colleges the place kids search schooling; hospitals and well being clinics offering important care; locations of worship providing religious refuge; home violence shelters defending weak households; emergency response websites throughout disasters; and group gatherings, together with funerals, weddings and non secular ceremonies.
“Trump’s reckless delicate location directive is an assault on New York’s immigrant communities and threatens the security of all New Yorkers,” Awawdeh stated. “When mother and father concern sending their kids to highschool or searching for emergency medical care or reporting crimes, our total metropolis suffers.
“New York State and New York Metropolis should use their full authority to defend our communities from these damaging raids that tear households aside and undermine public security, and Congress should step up on this second to cross the Defending Delicate Places Act,” he added.
“The time for motion is now,” Awawdeh continued. “New York should stand agency in opposition to this deliberate marketing campaign of concern and intimidation focusing on our most weak neighbors.”
New York State Sen. John Liu, who represents District 16 in northeast Queens, stated: “This reckless rollback by the Trump administration undermines the belief that’s important in our colleges, locations of worship, hospitals and different group areas.
“No baby ought to ever concern that their guardian could possibly be taken away in school drop-off, and no household ought to have to decide on between searching for medical care and avoiding deportation” added the chairperson of the Senate’s committee on New York Metropolis Schooling and likewise serves on the committees of Schooling, Finance, Increased Schooling, Judiciary, Guidelines and Transportation.
“We should stay steadfast in our dedication to defending immigrant communities, and condemn these federal insurance policies that sow concern and division and make everybody much less protected and safe,” continued Liu, a former comptroller of the Metropolis of New York (2010-2013) and a New York Metropolis Councilmember (2002-2009).
Deputy Speaker of New York Metropolis Council Diana Ayala, stated the Council is “making clear that we are going to not stay idle as this administration threatens to not solely upend our communities but additionally sow concern and chaos.
“This new directive permitting ICE entry to delicate areas doesn’t make our immigrant communities protected by any means and solely now drive individuals to reside within the shadows,” stated Ayala, whose District 8 contains Mott Haven-Port Morris, Melrose, Concourse-Concourse Village, Higher East Facet-Carnegie Hill, Higher East Facet-Yorkville, East Harlem (South), East Harlem (North) and Randall’s Island.
“Our work forward will probably be lengthy and troublesome as we navigate an unpredictable administration whose intentions and actions are poised to hurt us quite than assist on a regular basis individuals,” she added. “The Council is working to make sure that households are protected and prepared for the evolving challenges and risk that this federal administration poses by means of assets we’re serving to present on the bottom.”
Dr. Steve Auerbach, a doctor with New York Docs (NYDocs) Coalition, famous that “docs and different healthcare employees swore an oath that applies to the care and wellbeing of all our sufferers and all New Yorkers, no matter nation of origin or standing.
“[The non-public patient-care areas of all] ERs, hospitals and clinics should stay freed from ICE and some other immigration policing, so all our sufferers could be cared for securely, safely, and with the identical privateness all of us anticipate,” he stated. “We name on our healthcare establishments to supply the clear messaging, steering, and coaching that we have to stop such disruptions in look after all our sufferers.”
The Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer, government director, Interfaith Middle of New York, stated: “Mosques within the Bronx, temples in Queens and church buildings and synagogues in Manhattan share a dedication to spiritual liberty with a variety of religion leaders and elected officers, each regionally and nationally.
“Trump’s rollback of the delicate website coverage violates spiritual liberty by defining direct service as a non-essential to spiritual follow and by making a chilling impact for worship in sure religion communities,” she stated. “We name on our courts, and our metropolis and state elected officers to face up for our primary rights and the rule of regulation.”
Lara Evangelista, government director, Internationals Community for Public Colleges, and a frontrunner of NY-AFFIRMs, stated, “College students and households are scared.
“Regardless of the orders and new insurance policies, college students nonetheless have a authorized proper to attend public college,” she stated. “In New York Metropolis, the prolonged directions boil all the way down to this: Cease non-local enforcement on the door and name the NYCPS assigned lawyer.
“Whereas concern might make it onerous for folks and college students to really feel comfy going to highschool, know this: Colleges and educators are ready to do what is true by their college students and what they’re legally required to do,” she added.
New York State Assemblywoman Monique Chandler-Waterman, the daughter of Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants, famous that New York Metropolis “has at all times been highlighted as a melting pot referred to as to serve all New Yorkers.
“Sadly, the present overreach of enforcement insurance policies that we’ve witnessed on this nation and all through this state, over the previous few days, have had no consideration for the broader impression of those oppressive measures on our Black and Brown Caribbean communities,” stated the consultant for the 58th Meeting District in Brooklyn, who, on Wednesday, stood together with her colleagues on the state and native stage demanding that New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams and his administration rescind ICE cooperation steering that has been just lately despatched to the New York Metropolis Well being and Hospitals community.
“This measure places them in a compromising place, transferring them away from focusing away from healthcare wants,” added Chandler-Waterman, pledging to proceed to working together with her district’s taskforce “to host extra authorized immigrant clinics with my colleagues and be sure that our communities are conscious of their rights.”
On Thursday, a memo from Metropolis Corridor stated that municipal employees at migrant shelters, colleges and hospitals can allow ICE to enter metropolis property in the event that they really feel “threatened” by brokers.
“We don’t want metropolis employees stepping into bodily altercations in any manner with any nonlocal regulation enforcement officer,” Camille Joseph Varlack, a deputy mayor and the mayor’s chief of employees,” informed the New York Instances.
However Brooklyn lawmakers on Thursday urged Metropolis Corridor to rescind recently-shared steering on NYC Well being + Hospitals’ cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and to as a substitute make clear that each one New Yorkers ought to really feel comfy searching for care at public hospitals, no matter their immigration standing.
New York State Sen. Zellnor Y. Myrie, consultant for the 20th Senate District in Brooklyn, hosted the press convention exterior Kings County Hospital in central Brooklyn.
He was joined by Haitian-born Council Member Rita Joseph; New York State Meeting Member Phara Souffrant, the daughter of Haitian immigrants; and Chandler-Waterman.
“Rising up on this group, my mother and father typically introduced me to Kings County for bronchial asthma therapy— even earlier than they had been residents,” stated Myrie, whose grandmother hailed from Jamaica. “With out this care, I may not be alive at present.
“The current steering from Metropolis Corridor might intimidate individuals on this group and forestall them from searching for lifesaving care,” he added. “Our public hospitals should stay protected locations for each New Yorker, no matter their immigration standing.”
