PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Alexandra Rizio, Managing Attorney at Safe Passage Project
3:30:02
·
3 min
Alexandra Rizio, Managing Attorney at Safe Passage Project, testified about the challenges faced by unaccompanied immigrant youth and the organization's work. She emphasized the need for increased funding and highlighted issues with housing placements for these youth.
- Safe Passage Project serves over 1,400 children in New York City and Long Island, committing to cases for 3-6 years until achieving the best outcome.
- The organization has not received an increase in city council funding in 5 years, despite serving an increasing number of youth.
- Concerns were raised about youth being placed in HERRC shelters instead of traditional transitional shelters, citing issues with living conditions and lack of access to city services.
Alexandra Rizio
3:30:02
Good afternoon, and thank you to the city council, immigration and child and youth committee for inviting testimony.
3:30:07
I'm Alexandra Risio, managing attorney at SafePassage Project.
3:30:12
We currently serve over 1400 children who live in the Five boroughs of New York and Two Counties of Long Island.
3:30:18
We're a member of the Eye Care Coalition.
3:30:21
Once we accept the client, we commit to sticking with them until we achieve the best outcome for them, usually a green card.
3:30:28
That often takes 3 to 6 years due to delays in visa availability and court backlogs.
3:30:33
We receive funding from the city council through the UMFI funding stream.
3:30:38
I'd like to emphasize two main points right now.
3:30:41
Stagnant city council funding, and housing issues that our youth are facing.
3:30:46
While we appreciate the city council's consistent funding of the eye care collaborative, no organization within our collaborative has received an increase in funding in 5 years.
3:30:56
Despite requests for increases every year and despite the fact that we serve an ever increasing number of youth with the money we do receive.
3:31:03
We have a strong pipeline of attorney and social work candidates and an excellent supervisory structure And if we're granted additional funding, safe passage could put it to use almost immediately by hiring additional staff.
3:31:16
I'd also like to emphasize, as has been done in previous panels, that while prosay models of immigration services are useful for certain limited types of services, For example, I do commend the city's asylum application help centers for helping people meet their 1 year deadline and for handling age outs, which many of our partner organizations simply can't take on right now.
3:31:38
Say, passage is not accepting age outs, for people who will age out in less than 9 months.
3:31:44
We don't have the capacity to do it.
3:31:46
So I do commend the city for working on those types of cases, but that can't be the beginning and end of wide scale legal services.
3:31:56
They need additional assistance after the application is filed and hopefully granted, for example, to get them out of removal proceedings.
3:32:06
I also want to address housing.
3:32:08
We're facing issues with youth who are being placed in HERQ shelters, instead of traditional transitional shelters.
3:32:14
So we know that there are issues with the 30 60 day moving.
3:32:20
Clients have gotten sick from the meals served in her shelters.
3:32:25
THEY DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO CITY FAPS.
3:32:29
IF THEY'RE IN A HURK SHELTER, THEY DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO Vouchers, No SOCIAL SUPPORTS.
3:32:34
AND I HEARD FROM OUR SOCIAL WORK TEAM THAT WE WERE DEALING WITH A YOUNG PERSON WHO'S BEEN HOSPITALIZED TWICE after being beaten by guards in one shelter.
3:32:44
So we can imagine that that's happening to others as well.
3:32:48
And finally, you know, there are placement mistakes.
3:32:51
We're working with a client who entered the US in prior to March 2022, but it was placed into the HURK system regardless.
3:33:00
And this seems that it was just due to confusion regarding the placement assessment.
3:33:05
So in short, we have concerns about the type of housing that miners are being funneled into.
3:33:11
I mentioned in my written testimony, I didn't get to it right now.
3:33:14
We're receiving more referrals from ACS that we can't slot into any existing grant stream.
3:33:21
So for u UC's who are not in removal proceedings, we don't have a grant stream to funnel them in.
3:33:29
So if they're an affirmative case, we really can't take it.
3:33:32
Likewise, if they're aging out, we can't take it.
3:33:36
And then I just like to emphasize again that we have not received an increase in city funding in over 5 years.
3:33:41
Thank you.