Dozens of advocates, including multiple NYC Council members, rallied at City Hall on Monday, demanding more legislative support for undocumented immigrant New Yorkers.
Led by Brooklyn Council Member Alexa Avilés, chair of the council’s Immigration Committee, the rally focused on getting four bills passed to protect the city’s immigrant community. At the forefront of the package is Intro. 214, which would hold city agencies, including the NYPD, accountable under existing laws, allowing immigrants to sue when “their rights have been violated.”
Fellow Brooklyn Council Member Shahana Hanif, who is sponsoring the legislation, charged that city agencies have “repeatedly” broken sanctuary city laws.
“City agencies unlawfully share information with federal immigration authorities, with no training, accountability, or enforcement mechanism when our laws are violated,” Hanif said. “My bill, the NYC Trust Act, would hold the NYPD, Department of Corrections (DOP), and DOP accountable to the laws already on our books by creating a private right of action–empowering those whose rights have been violated to bring suit and seek justice.”
Complementing this bill is Council Member Tiffany Caban’s Intro. 1412, which would prohibit federal agencies conducting immigration enforcement from setting up shop on Correction Department property. This would counter an executive order Mayor Eric Adams’ administration issued in April that sought to re-establish ICE’s Rikers Island office; the Council successfully sued the mayor to stop the order from being enforced.
“Federal agencies that don’t normally do immigration enforcement are being used to terrorize our communities, beating up seniors, separating families, shackling pregnant mothers, and separating six-year olds from their father,” Caban explained. “Our bill clarifies New York’s sanctuary laws, stops ICE from setting up in our jails, and ensures every New Yorker is protected, no matter which agency is weaponized against us.”
Two additional bills focused on immigrant protections include Intro. 268, which would require the city to display signage informing people of their rights when engaging with federal authorities; and Intro. 1272, which would prohibit employers from checking the employment authorization status of an applicant who has not been offered employment.
Council members at the rally, which was held in advance of a hearing to review the list of bills, spoke about NYC’s history as an immigrant city. Immigrant populations, they said, make up nearly 40% of the city’s current population, and added that they have been responsible for innumerable cultural and economic contributions.
“It has been nearly a year since Donald Trump took office and began waging war on our immigrant communities,” Avilés said. “We have seen New Yorkers violently kidnapped in the hundreds at regular court proceedings, we have seen people ripped from their homes, outside schools, on the streets, at work, and beyond, Families have been torn apart. Students and children have disappeared from their classrooms. Today, we are reaffirming the laws that have worked to protect our city.”
amNewYork reached out to the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs for their comments on the proposed legislation. A City Hall spokesperson explained that the three affected agencies — NYPD, DOC and DOP — are in discussion on the implications of the bills and how they will operate with existing laws. For these reasons, all three agencies submitted written testimony for today’s hearing.
“Our team is proud of what we have accomplished over the past four years: educating more than 40,000 immigrant New Yorkers about their rights, assisting 43,000 immigrant New Yorkers with their immigration cases, responding to nearly 160,000 calls through our immigration legal hotline, and providing English language classes to 18,000 immigrant New Yorkers — all while helping to care for a total of over 240,000 migrants and asylum seekers, as well as millions of other longtime immigrant New Yorkers who call our city home,” the spokesperson explained.
Council members at the rally urged their colleagues to pass all four bills before the city legislature ends its current session this month.
