Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Examination of New York City's current protections and resources for immigrants
0:10:35
ยท
3 min
Council Member Aviles examines the current protections and resources New York City offers to immigrant communities, emphasizing the importance of upholding and strengthening these measures.
- Discusses the benefits of sanctuary laws, including public safety, cost savings, and family unity
- Highlights the roles of MOIA and OASO in upholding local laws and providing resources
- Emphasizes the need for continued funding of immigration legal services and know-your-rights trainings
- Calls on the mayoral administration to affirm and uphold the city's legacy of supporting immigrants
Alexa Aviles
0:10:35
We have a responsibility as leaders to champion and publicly combat misconceptions about our protective laws.
0:10:45
These laws, also known as sanctuary laws, have promoted public safety, have saved the city money, has enhanced trust in local government, and has kept families together and safe for years, including during the last Trump administration.
0:11:07
We look forward to hearing what Moya is doing in its convening role to help other agencies and offices uphold our local laws, to provide resources to community members, organize alongside our sanctuary jurisdictions, and advocate for favorable immigration policies.
0:11:26
We also look forward to hearing how the office of asylum seeker operations is applying the city's local laws pertaining to data and privacy and access to private areas of city property in specific contexts like the quasi shelter system for immigrant newcomers and the asylum application help center.
0:11:47
New York City must not, and I repeat, New York City must not, should not be complicit in Donald Trump's deportation dragnet and quite frankly, xenophobic extremist and racist agenda.
0:12:06
That is the minimum New Yorkers should require of our city government.
0:12:11
But we have done and must continue to do so much more to protect and support our immigrant communities.
0:12:19
From funding immigration legal services and know your rights trainings to providing best practice guidance on language access services, the city has a long legacy of ensuring that our immigrants not only survive but truly thrive.
0:12:35
We know employees of Moya and Owasso have dedicated themselves to upholding this tradition.
0:12:41
We thank them for their work and we call on the mayoral administration not to abandon this legacy of which New Yorkers should be quite proud, but to affirm it, to uphold it to the fullest extent of the law.
0:13:00
No rollbacks, no workarounds.
0:13:05
We look forward to working with the mayoral administration again to affirm, not only with words, but with actions that New York will not be complicit in the president elects program to harm our communities, to separate families, and to destroy neighborhoods.
0:13:27
Instead, we remain ready to collaborate with the mayoral administration to uphold these protective laws, to fund legal services and know your rights, and to focus on empowering the working people of this city.