In the News 2011

MRNY 2011 COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY © CLAUDIO PAPAPIETRO E RO MAKE TH AD NEW YO RK 2011 JANUARY - MARCH DIGNIDAD , CO MU NID AD Y PODER IN THE NEWS MAKE THE ROAD NEW YORK 301 GROVE STREET 92-10 ROOSEVELT AVENUE 479 PORT RICHMOND AVENUE BROOKLYN, NY 11237 JACKSON HEIGHTS, NY 11372 STATEN ISLAND, NY 10302 tel 718 418 7690 tel 718 565 8500 tel 718 727 1222 fax 718 418 9635 fax 718 565 0646 fax 718 981 8077 VISIT WWW.MAKETHEROADNY.ORG FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF MRNY’S WORK THIS QUARTER. Unfair to Immigrants, Costly for Taxpayers By Andrew Friedman and Scott M. Stringer April 4, 2011 Every year thousands of immigrants being held on Rikers Island are transferred to federal custody and deported. Only about half of them have a criminal record, many of them are here legally, most of them have their due process rights violated and all of them are subjected to substandard conditions before being returned to their countries of origin. The city has no obligation to hand over detainees, and in fact many cities around the country have refused to participate in the federal government’s efforts. Mayor Michael Bloomberg should do the same. Under what is known as the Criminal Alien Program, for more than a decade city law enforcement officials have given the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency the names of all arrestees, regardless of the crime they are accused of committing and regardless of whether they are convicted. When agents locate an immigrant, they often request that he be transferred to federal custody. Once in federal hands, most detainees are transported to centers in Texas and Louisiana, far from their families. Conditions at these federal detention centers are worse than those at many prisons, with inadequate medical care and access to phones and legal materials. Detainees are subjected to abuse and sometimes even death — 107 people died in immigration detention from 2003 to 2010. True, earlier this year the federal government proposed upgrading these centers, including those in the New York region, to increase capacity and improve conditions. But this is a Band-Aid solution to a much larger problem: over 80 percent of those in detention have little or no access to lawyers — and no effective way to represent their interests in a surreal, confusing system. Not only is the program an injustice — according to our calculations, it has cost the city tens of millions of dollars. New York houses these prisoners at Rikers far longer than it would otherwise, because of a misguided city policy which forbids anyone with immigration holds — meaning they might be placed in deportation proceedings — from being released on bail. What’s more, because of its flaws and draconian rules, the city’s policy deters many immigrant New Yorkers from reporting crimes, fearing that contact with the police could lead to deportation. Perhaps what is most disturbing is that sometimes legal immigrants who have been convicted of no crime are caught up in this system. Their plight stems partly from flaws in federal databases; the process is too rushed to ensure proper identification of status and identity, let alone confirmation of criminal background. But it’s also a matter of political pressure to increase the number of people who are deported every year. E- mails released in December from the Department of Homeland Security showed how the immigration agency has been pushing states and cities to send it the fingerprints of all those they arrest as part of a similar program, Secure Communities. For all these reasons, Mayor Bloomberg should end New York’s collaboration with federal officials on Rikers Island and resist Washington’s pressure to join the newer Secure Communities program. New York wouldn’t be the first: communities as diverse as Santa Clara, Calif., and Arlington, Va., have limited or prevented federal access to their jails. For decades, New York City has been a beacon to the rest of the country in promoting immigrant rights. We must not let our desire to enforce immigration laws lead us to dim that light. Scott M. Stringer is the Manhattan borough president. Andrew Friedman is the co-executive director of Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy organization. Even Bloomberg Can’t Escape Complexity of Immigration By Sam Dolnick January 20, 2011 On “Meet the Press,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg prevalent in many parts of the country, that they can be declared, “We have to go and get the immigrants here.” To deported if a police officer notices them. a group of business leaders in Brooklyn, he extolled “the economic power” of immigration. And in his State of the The city’s information line, 311, greets callers in Spanish, City address on Wednesday, he interrupted a litany of local Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Creole. In his issues to urge Americans “to fix our broken immigration address on Wednesday, the mayor promised new system.” programs to help immigrant entrepreneurs obtain loans and expertise. Having taken on the New York City school system and the illegal gun trade, Mr. Bloomberg has now proposed Yet even as New York ranks among the American cities overhauling the federal immigration laws, offering himself most accommodating to newcomers, certain practices as the man to help settle one of the nation’s thorniest keep immigrants on edge. At the city jail complex on debates. He praises immigrants as a precious resource and Rikers Island, Correction Department officials provide speaks of current immigration policy with undisguised lists of foreign-born inmates to federal officers who then disgust — “the most ruinous economic policy you could question, detain and deport about 3,200 a year. ever conceive of” was his line on Wednesday. Immigrants’ advocates say the collaboration leads to the removal of many immigrants who have not been convicted But the stark language often brushes past the complexities of, or even charged with, serious crimes, and makes others surrounding immigration, which has proved to be a afraid to cooperate with law enforcement. nuanced and difficult issue, even for the mayor. Mr. Bloomberg’s efforts to make city agencies more Though Mr. Bloomberg, the grandson of immigrants from accessible to people who speak little or no English have Russia and what is now Belarus, has set an inclusive tone won wide acclaim. In 2003, he signed a law requiring the in his nine years as mayor and has provided critical city’s Human Resources Administration and social service services for immigrants, some programs have failed to live agencies to provide interpreters and other language help; up to expectations. an executive order in 2008 extended that to every agency dealing with the public. And though he has adopted landmark policies to protect the privacy of illegal immigrants, he has also rankled But Legal Services NYC, a nonprofit group, is suing the immigrants’ advocates who say city and police officials Human Resources Administration, saying that follow- work too closely with federal authorities, putting many through has been spotty, leading to “humiliating noncriminals at risk of arrest and deportation. discrimination” against immigrants. Many city workers remain unaware of the rules, and some are unequipped to “Mayor Bloomberg has been an important ally of help people who speak other languages, lawyers and immigrant communities,” said Andrew advocates say. Friedman, co-director of Make the Road New York, an advocacy group. “But there are a “There is a big disconnect between what our city policy number of areas where he has not used his power, says and what’s happening,” said Amy S. Taylor, the and as a result, immigrant New Yorkers are more lawyer who filed the suit. likely to be deported, less likely to learn English, less likely Mr. Bloomberg said in a recent interview that language to be paid lawful wages.” access was improving. But, he noted, “you’re never going to have every language spoken in every agency 24 hours a Supporting immigrant causes is virtually a job day.” requirement for any New York mayor, but many immigrants and their supporters say Mr. Bloomberg has He said that he had worked to build trust between gone well beyond the expected. His New York is a city immigrants and government agencies, and that where illegal immigrants start businesses, raise families newcomers were crucial to New York’s success. and attend public school without the constant fear, “Our lifeblood is a constant stream of new immigrants,” he Katzmann, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals said, “to improve our cuisine, our culture, our language for the Second Circuit who has worked closely with the and, mainly, our economy.” administration. Mr. Bloomberg began his third term a year ago by The mayor has not endorsed every suggested change in announcing plans for a national task force of big-city immigration policy, particularly when a proposal collides mayors and prominent business leaders to press Congress with his pro-business agenda. For example, he resisted for an overhaul of immigration policy. His principal calls to support a state bill, signed into law last month by argument was, and is, that immigrants are good for the Gov. David A. Paterson, to set stiffer penalties for economy because they open businesses, create jobs and employers who underpay workers, many of them illegal pay taxes. immigrants; Mr. Bloomberg’s aides say he was concerned about its effect on small businesses. There is disagreement over how much influence Mr. Bloomberg, an independent, might wield in the national For many, though, Mr. Bloomberg’s signal mark on the debate over immigration, given the Republicans’ takeover immigration debate had nothing to do with policy.

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