Council Examines Immigrant Affairs Office
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The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, made permanent immediately after the September 11, 2001, attacks, will be under the microscope today at a City Council hearing.
The chairman of the council’s Committee on Immigration, Kendall Stewart, said yesterday that the office is important for helping immigrants, but that it is not doing enough and is not receiving adequate city funding.
“More can be done in terms of creating an environment where people can call in or they can help other groups who are doing immigration issues,” said Mr. Stewart, a Democrat from Brooklyn.
The criticism comes despite various steps the mayor has taken to protect immigrants, in particular Executive Order 41, which was passed last year and promised that the NYPD would not arrest any immigrant solely on the basis of illegal status.
Many immigrant advocates say that despite the good intentions of the executive order, it is not being enforced, which is causing immigrants to fear going to the police.
The problem lies primarily in the intersection between federal and local jurisdiction.
Activists charge that a national crime database is often used by local police officers to identify immigration offenders, in violation of the mayor’s executive order.
The result is that “folks are afraid to come forward because they are undocumented,” Mr. Stewart said.
The mayor’s new commissioner on immigrant affairs, Guillermo Linares, a specialist in bilingual education, is scheduled to testify at today’s council hearing.
During an interview yesterday, Mr. Linares spoke about coordinating the mayor’s office and organizations addressing immigrant concerns.
Mr. Linares said the details of a significantly increased budget and the office’s increased personnel would be addressed during today’s hearing.
“That’s the difference than what it was under the prior commissioner,” Mr. Linares said, adding that the greatest challenge is accommodating the needs of the diverse immigrant communities. “It’s a huge challenge. I never faced such a big challenge as this, not even when I was in City Council.”
A lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union, Udi Ofer, said he will testify today that both the council and the mayor’s office need to further protect the rights of New York’s immigrants and let their voices be heard on pending federal legislation.
