City Council Member Rafael Espinal Jr. (D-Cypress Hills, Bushwick, City Line, Oceanhill-Brownsville, East New York) and other city officials joined forces to help quell the fears of more than a hundred immigrant residents that filled the Ridgewood Bushwick Youth Center in Bushwick last night.
The worried crowd turned out to learn about their rights and protections that they have regardless of their immigration status.
The meeting came as the Trump Administration is reported to be making several announcements today regarding immigration including the building of a wall on the U.S./Mexican border, limiting the number or refugees to this country while tightening vetting methods for those that are allowed to come in, increasing the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and taking measures to cut funding for sanctuary cities that protect undocumented immigrant residents.
“I thought it was important for us as elected officials and local representatives to give information to the people here in Brooklyn that we as a city are going to stand behind you. There are protections that you have being that you’re living in a sanctuary city, and all the agencies are working very hard and diligently to make sure that you can continue to live your life as an everyday New Yorker,” said Espinal.
The panel for the evening included representatives from the City’s Human Rights Commission, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office, the Department of Consumer Affairs, and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs .
The attendees were desperately seeking information for their family and friends against any new policies or behaviors that could affect them. One attendee brought up the fact that the White House website has currently disable the Civil Rights page which has many Brooklynites worried about their American civil liberties. According to the Daily News, the White House website has also removed the pages on LGBT rights, global warming and regulations and all Spanish pages. Many new presidents take down certain pages of the official White House website in order to customize the page to their specific administration.
Tommy Torres, Democratic District Leader of the 53rd Assembly District and Assistant Principal of the Grand Street Campus High School in Bushwick, said it was important for him to attend the meeting so he could disseminate the information gleaned to the many immigrant families living in Bushwick and Williamsburg, as well as to the high immigrant population attending the high school.
“It’s important for me to learn because there are many different ways of protecting our citizens. They do have anxiety and fears. This investment in immigration lawyers helping our people [Latino immigrants] with their status [immigration status] to become legal, to become residents, to become citizens, is why people came here, for the opportunities in our city,” said Torres.
Bushwick resident Carmen Alonzo, who is originally from Guatemala and has been in Brooklyn for 12 years, said she is not afraid of the Trump Administration, but does believe in presenting a united front when it comes to resisting immigrant policies. “I am not scared of Trump or his threats or any of the things that he has said but I put my faith in the Lord. There is a big Latino community here in New York and I know that we are going to unite in order to defend ourselves,” Alonzo said.
Jose Terriano, who was representing Gonzalez, said the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office recently announced an initiative to bring in immigration lawyers to work alongside the Kings County D.A.’s office in order to avoid unnecessary deportation of immigrants without status who have committed low-level crimes.
In the past, deportation for the low-level illegal immigrant criminals was considered a “collateral consequence,” or an additional penalty tied to a conviction that is an indirect result of a crime, according to the Sentencing Project website.
Terriano said the immigration lawyers initiative through the DA’s office will start later this year.
