IMMIGRANT JUSTICE

The Benefits of a Green New Northern.

Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst, and Woodside represent the most diverse neighborhoods in the world. The 34th Assembly District is 62 percent immigrants, and the vibrancy of our community reflects that. Yet our immigrant communities are in crisis. 

We are at the epicenter of the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, and it is no coincidence that we are a predominantly immigrant community. Our communities have been targeted by ICE and are now at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 in detention. Undocumented immigrants largely do not have access to quality healthcare, are often exploited as workers, with immigrant women more vulnerable to sexual harrassment and assault, and now - despite being hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis - much of the our community is left entirely without financial relief. Yet, many are still essential workers and put their lives at risk every day to ensure the city continues to operate during the pandemic.

As a daughter of an immigrant father from Paraguay, fighting for immigrant justice has been a priority my entire life. If elected, I will fight for the robust platform that follows in order to protect our immigrant neighbors and ensure dignity for all.

Inequality Kills. We Demand #Recovery4All

Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for the stimulus check, for unemployment insurance, and other benefits available through the federal stimulus package.  During this pandemic, our community has been on the frontlines - as delivery workers, as grocery workers, as cleaners, as caregivers - yet those same essential workers are excluded from the benefits available in the stimulus package. New York must step up and  provide relief for those excluded from the stimulus package. 

The plight of immigrant tenants is enormous and a key part of the #Recovery4All. We must cancel rent, We must also release vulnerable populations from prisons, jails and detention centers and ensure all people, despite status, have access to unemployment benefits and cash relief.

Finally, in order to combat inequality we must raise revenue and invest in our communities. I support Sen. Ramos and Assemblymember De La Rosa's bill to tax billionaires and create an Excluded Workers Fund. 

Keep Immigrant Families Together. Limit the Power of ICE in New York

ICE has ripped apart families and communities, and while we must fight to abolish ICE at the federal level, it is critical that New York State take bold action to protect our immigrant neighbors.

Pass and Expand the Protect Our Courts Act (A2176A Solages/S0425 Hoylman) which would prevent civil arrests and detentions by ICE at New York courthouses, where undocumented immigrants are often targeted in vulnerable situations. I plan to go further by banning ICE from additional sensitive locations, including schools, hospitals, clinics, houses of worship, transportation hubs and homeless shelters. When we create a system whereby we allow ICE to operate in what should be safe spaces, immigrants are less likely to seek necessary, and sometimes life-saving, resources. 

Free detainees being held, primarily in Batavia, NY, during this public health crisis. We must #FreeThemAll in order to save the lives of incarcerated and detained people at risk. 

Healthcare is a Human Right. Give Immigrants the Right to Healthcare 

Pass the New York Health Act (A5248 Gottfried/S3577 Rivera) which would create a single-payer healthcare system ensuring all New Yorkers have access to healthcare, regardless of employment or immigration status.

Expand the Essential Plan (A5974 Gottfried/S3900 Rivera). According to the #Coverage4All Coalition, more than 400,000 New Yorkers cannot enroll because of their immigration status. This bill would allow low-income New Yorkers who are not currently eligible for coverage because of their immigration status to be covered by the New York Essential Plan. 

Preserve Medicaid eligibility for New Yorkers with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) (A3316 Solages/S1809 Rivera) who stand to lose their coverage if the Trump administration terminates the TPS program.

Justice for All. Expand immigrants’ legal power

Pass the Access to Representation Act (A9125 Cruz/S7261 Hoylman) and give immigrants facing deportation the right to an attorney. While there are existing public defense programs providing representation to immigrants, those programs are limited to the state budget and, depending on the governor and legislature’s priorities, are at risk of being cut. This bill would codify the right to an attorney into law. 

Protect immigrant victims of fraud by giving them private right of action to sue notarios/immigration lawyers who take advantage of them. The process of gaining your green card or citizenship in this country is long, arduous, and costly, taking decades at times and costing thousands of dollars. In communities like Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst, and Woodside, where there are large populations of immigrants, you tend to find notarios and unscrupulous lawyers seeking these immigrants desperate to move the process along. These notarios and lawyers charge thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of dollars with the promise of expediting the legal process to grant them their green card or citizenship. When the notarios or lawyers take that money, which is often someone’s life savings, without fulfilling what they set out to do, there is little recourse for immigrants to be reimbursed and take action against that notario or attorney. I am proposing a bill that would provide that avenue to immigrant victims of fraud to provide them the ability to recuperate that lost money, and to discourage further fraud on behalf of these notarios and lawyers.

Decriminalize crimes of poverty like turnstile jumping that too often put immigrants on the path to deportation. Crimes of poverty have too often been dealt with through the carceral system, with folks ending up in jail for minor offences that require economic solutions. If someone is stealing food, or jumping a turnstile, or sellings goods without a proper permit, it’s simply because they are finding whatever necessary solution to a desperate economic problem. It is bad enough we are arresting folks for these crimes of poverty, but it is made worse when we know that police officers target communities of color, sometimes targeting immigrants communities, knowing that putting someone in jail can trigger a deportation process. 

Protect Immigrant Workers and Small Business Owners 

Lift the cap on vendor licenses (A9782 Ortiz/S6817 Ramos). The cap on food vendor licenses hasn’t been lifted since the 1980s, and many street vendors are forced to go to the black market and pay tens of thousands for a permit, while risking harassment from the police. Our community relies on food served by predominantly immigrant food vendors and it will serve all of us to bring them into compliance. Lifting the cap allows these vendors to sell their goods legally and safely, providing greater economic opportunity to our immigrant populations, and hopefully ease police interactions with vendors.

Pass the SWEAT Act (A9008 Rosenthal/S7256 Ramos) which would give victims of wage theft, often exploited immigrant workers, the protection to obtain their back wage claims. In New York State alone workers are owed $1 billion in stolen wages. 

The 34th Assembly District deserves a leader who will center the lived realities of our immigrant communities and will fight to ensure that all people in our neighborhood can live, work and raise their families with dignity.