TESTIMONY
Madelyn Elfenbein, Member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, on Ending Shelter Restrictions for Migrants
2:36:06
·
3 min
Madelyn Elfenbein argues for the elimination of shelter restrictions to support migrants, influenced by personal and communal experiences.
- Elfenbein discusses the impact of a 60-day shelter limit, which forced a Venezuelan child out of her daughter's school.
- She highlights the broader societal implications, including diminished empathy and increased community effort to fill voids left by policymakers.
- Elfenbein criticizes the city's bureaucracy and the mayor's policies, describing them as xenophobic and damaging to communal solidarity.
- The testimony underscores children's awareness and concerns about societal actions and their impact on peers.
Madelyn Elfenbein
2:36:06
Thank you, madam Chairman.
2:36:08
My name is Madelyn Elfenbein, and I am 1 of 6000 members of Jews for racial and economic justice.
2:36:15
And I'm here today to speak in support of ending shelter restrictions as a New Yorker, as a parent, and as a Jew.
2:36:22
My child is a student at PS 125 in warning site heights.
2:36:26
Last September, she started 2nd grade along with 2 new classmates.
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Who are asylum seekers from Venezuela.
2:36:33
In December, we learned that one of them was forced to leave because her family had been turned out of their shelter.
2:36:39
After reaching the 60 day limit.
2:36:41
Her classmates wrote letters to mayor Adams to let him know what happened.
2:36:46
And here's a part of the letter that my daughter wrote.
2:36:51
Would you like to have made friends and have to leave them?
2:36:54
I definitely would not like that.
2:36:57
My friend, Chris Murray, had to leave our class because she had no housing.
2:37:01
I think you should give migrants more housing, so no one has to leave their friends.
2:37:09
How is it that a 2nd grader understands what our city does not?
2:37:13
The cruelty of shelter restrictions goes beyond the children enforces out into the cold.
2:37:19
It rubs off on all of us.
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In fact, much of our city does understand this.
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Our school has dozens of students who are asylum seekers.
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We have room for them, and we are glad to welcome them.
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Across the city, as we just heard, ordinary New Yorkers are stepping up.
2:37:35
We're doing our best to find shoes and coats, and underwear, and toothbrushes, and jobs for our new neighbors, but our best efforts are not enough when our city government refuses to do its part and provide the bare minimum, which is a safe place to return to every night.
2:37:54
Instead, The current labyrinthine bureaucracy we just heard described in detail only adds to their litany of hardships.
2:38:02
The system is not doing its job.
2:38:05
The cruelty of these restrictions would be bad enough on their own, but it's deeply offensive the way this cruelty is being justified as if it were on our behalf.
2:38:15
What I've heard from the mouth of our New York mayor is beyond what I ever expected to hear.
2:38:21
And I'll say that as a Jew, The hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I hear him blame migrants for the budget cuts he proposes for reasons of his own.
2:38:32
My forebears are migrants.
2:38:34
All of our forebears are migrants, and today's migrants do not threaten my well-being, but the mayor's xenophobic lies and his policies do.
2:38:42
Jews for racial and economic justice stands alongside dozens of other groups in calling foul on the mayor's attempt to pit the housed against the unhoused.
2:38:52
We know that all of us come from somewhere, that we are all here together now, and that our fates are bound together.
2:38:59
I also just want to end by saying that our kids are watching us.
2:39:03
They see people sleeping in the rough every day.
2:39:06
They see their friends disappearing from classrooms.
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They see people falling asleep while standing up, waiting in line for a chance to sleep indoors.
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They wanna know what kind of a city they're being raised in.
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Are we a city that turns its back on their friends?
2:39:24
Thank you.