Pols host town halls, share Know Your Rights info about ICE – because what else can they do?

At least half an hour after mass was dismissed in Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in the Bronx on Sunday, a priest sat in the corner of the room as about 30 people watched one of most influential Latinos in New York politics, Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, moderate a Know Your Rights town hall for constituents.

At the event, the lawmaker said his staff is “trained in immigration services” and featured immigrant justice law firms and nonprofits like Cabrini Immigrant Services and Make The Road, who answered constituents’ questions, including on what happens to one's children in the event a parent is detained or deported.

“There’s a lot of fear out there, but really, the only way to overcome that fear is not to fear that fear,” Espaillat, who is formerly an undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic, said to the audience in Spanish. 

The Feb. 2 event is just one of several Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, is hosting on the matter – and he’s not alone. With New York’s sanctuary city status in murky waters, and now, with the Trump administration coming in swinging with intensified raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, many politicians are sharing Know Your Rights materials to help undocumented New Yorkers navigate what to do when ICE knocks on their door. Those “rights” include what are one’s legal rights when interacting with ICE in public and private spaces. 

But beyond that, state and city officials are scrambling to figure out how to help undocumented immigrants when immigration policy is out of their control, relying more on nonprofits and advocates to share resources. 

Multiple city and state legislators are posting online about Know Your Rights. The City Council launched a Know Your Rights campaign on social media on Tuesday. And its X account reposted videos of Council Members Sandra Ung, Alexa Avilés and Rita Joseph speaking in Mandarin, Spanish and Haitian Creole, respectively, about what New Yorkers should know about their legal rights when interacting with ICE. Assembly Member Karines Reyes posted Know Your Rights infographics on X, as did the state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus and many others. 

Some, like Espaillat, are holding town halls and workshops such as Assembly Member Michaelle Solages. Solages, who chairs the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic And Asian Legislative Caucus, told City & State her team is planning to host virtual Know Your Rights workshops in addition to events held through the caucus, and her office is referring constituents to local immigrant nonprofits and legal services. 

But other than that, she sees this as a federal issue. “I'm a state legislator,” she said. “At the end of the day, I'm not going to comment on what the federal government should be doing. I think the federal government should be passing comprehensive immigration reform and making sure that we have a pathway to citizenship.”

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams recently declared the council is working to protect the “city of immigrants” as the City Council recently announced $2 million in funding for the Protect NYC Families initiative and Community Interpreter Bank to help close informational and linguistic gaps about the rights and resources of immigrants.

For now, it seems that’s going to be the council’s approach. Council spokesperson Julia Agos said their “intention is to continue supporting these kinds of programs.” 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams tackled the influx of asylum seekers starting in spring 2022, and rebuffed the Biden administration regularly for failing to provide adequate financial support to manage the crisis. But recently, Adams has stopped short of criticizing President Donald Trump on immigration. That’s a change from the de Blasio administration, which, when Trump first took office in 2017, stood with undocumented New Yorkers and denounced Trump’s attempt to add a citizenship question for the 2020 Census (though the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately struck that down). 

The Mayor’s Office of Immigration Affairs previously released guidance on Know Your Rights, but as for what else the office has been doing as far as assisting immigrants, the mayor spoke in broad terms when asked about it Wednesday, saying Commissioner Manuel Castro has “led the way on this issue” and “has done an amazing job of scenario planning.” 

Asked for specifics, Liz Garcia, deputy press secretary for the mayor, was also vague in an email to City & State. “The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs has engaged immigrant communities and expanded Know Your Rights trainings regarding federal immigration enforcement.” She said, “We have specifically expanded trainings at community- and faith-based organizations.” 

For her part, Assembly Member Karines Reyes is a sponsor for The New York for All Act which would prevent local and state government agencies from coordinating and disclosing personal information to ICE.

Justin Westbrook-Lowery, Reyes’ chief of staff and legislative director, said their office is also working to “increase capacity (to train legislative staff in Know Your Rights) and have the state government fill a role that the federal government is unable to fulfill.”

Asked by City & State if lawmakers’ hands were tied, Espaillat responded, “Our hands are never tied.”