At Somos, plans develop to push immigrant protections

A mass deportation strategy promised by President-elect Donald Trump is prompting some New York lawmakers and advocates to strategize about how to strengthen sanctuary policies and head off any whiffs of cooperating with the incoming Trump administration’s drastic proposal.

That work will be a top priority for groups including the New York Immigration Coalition and the Chinese-American Planning Council when the state legislative session in Albany begins next January, around the same time that Trump will take office for his second term. “The best thing that we can do to protect our community members right now is to do everything we can to make sure that New York is a sanctuary state. That means policies that protect immigrants, make sure people have benefits – housing, everything they need to thrive regardless of their status,” said Carlyn Cowen, chief policy and public affairs officer with the Chinese-American Planning Council.

That includes the New York 4 All Act, which would build on an existing sanctuary executive order. The legislation would, among other things, prohibit state and local officials from collaborating with federal immigration authorities, using public resources for that purpose, disclosing sensitive information, and entering individuals’ immigration status into government databases, unless to help obtain a benefit.

Other priorities for CPC include bills to extend food assistance, housing assistance and unemployment benefits to immigrants not eligible for existing programs. 

The New York Immigration Coalition will also make a big push for the Access to Representation Act, which would create – and provide resources for – the right to legal counsel in immigration court proceedings.

Will state lawmakers have the appetite to take up the work of strengthening immigrant rights as a priority next session? “They fucking better,” Cowen said.

“I know many of us are very committed to it, so I don’t think that we’ll give up so easily,” said Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas. At a panel on the Latino vote at Somos on Thursday, Assembly Member Karines Reyes suggested calling a special session to “build a wall” of protections before Trump’s term begins to prevent negative impacts of his proposed policies. 

In the city, which also has sanctuary protections on the books, there is still work to be done to make sure that those policies are ironclad, said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. 

Current sanctuary policies prohibit the city from honoring detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only excepting certain circumstances, including if an individual has been convicted of a serious or violent crime. One bill in the City Council would create a right for individuals detained in violation of those sanctuary policies to sue for civil damages.

As the city has faced an influx of more than 210,000 migrants over the last two-and-a-half years, and seen some instances of crimes committed by migrants, Mayor Eric Adams has expressed a desire to roll back that standard to something similar to policy in place under Mayor Ed Koch, which allowed collaboration when there was merely a suspicion of criminal activity.

“This administration has been very vocal about wanting to do away with sanctuary city (protections), and a lot of his rhetoric has been very Trump-ish, which scares communities like ours,” said Council Member Diana Ayala, who represents parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

When asked about Trump’s deportation plans at a press conference on Wednesday, Adams didn’t answer questions about how his administration would protect undocumented immigrants from mass deportation. 

At that press conference, Commissioner Manny Castro of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs expressed faith in the city’s current sanctuary policies. “I want to make sure that our immigrant communities know that, as the mayor has said, we will continue to be a sanctuary city, and we will continue to protect our immigrant communities,” he said, as he sought to prevent panic in those communities. “I think the most harm for immigrant communities is a sense of anxiety and panic that is setting in, the misinformation, and some instances of hate crimes.”