PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Keighly Rector, Director of Immigration Project at Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS)
4:51:33
ยท
5 min
Keighly Rector, Director of the Immigration Project at Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS), testified on the importance of strengthening sanctuary policies, increasing support for long-term noncitizen residents, and addressing problematic rhetoric from city leadership regarding immigrants. She emphasized the need for safe spaces for immigrants to seek legal services and highlighted the challenges faced by both recent arrivals and long-term residents.
- Recommended exploring ways to extend sanctuary-like protections to locations where legal services are provided
- Highlighted the overlooked needs of long-term noncitizen residents in current funding structures
- Criticized the city's handling of the Jeremy Colino case, emphasizing how it eroded trust in public officials among immigrant communities
Keighly Rector
4:51:33
Good afternoon, and thank you, chair Aviles.
4:51:35
This is not part of my testimony, but I just wanna thank you so sincerely.
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I've been sitting here for many hours.
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You acknowledge that we've been here for many hours, but you have too.
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And, it's been a dark few months in the advocacy space for our noncitizen neighbors, and I think this is a really, needed breath of fresh air just to see what it can look like when our government, when our representatives genuinely care.
4:52:01
You heard from so many people today, obviously, legal service providers, but members of the community, And the care, and intentionality that you took to respond to each one of them was just really moving, and I wanna just acknowledge the time and emotional energy that goes into that, and thank you.
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My name is Kaylee Rechter.
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I am the director of the immigration project at Volunteers of Legal Service or Vols, and we partner with New York City's leading law firms and corporations to provide free legal services to low income New Yorkers through our in house team and by leveraging pro bono attorneys.
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Our mission is to axe increase access to justice for the city's residents, including immigrant youth and their families.
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Since its inception, the immigration project has built deep relationships with educators and staff at over 30 of the city's immigrant serving public schools, colleges, and community based organizations.
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Those community partnerships allow us to reach young people where they feel safest and help ensure that their legal needs are met.
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We've shared written testimony which details our recommendations to city council.
4:53:06
I do wanna highlight 3 pieces of, those recommendations today.
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1st, as you've heard from my colleagues here and from many of the brilliant people who
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4:53:15
came before you today, the city's
Keighly Rector
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sanctuary policies are an absolute lifeline.
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The sanctuary policies are an absolute lifeline.
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The legislative actions like the New York for all act would further strengthen those.
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I had planned to talk a bit about the importance of those sanctuary policies in schools because so many of our clients are students at many of the international's high schools, but there's nothing that I could say that was better than the young woman who spoke from Make the Road earlier.
4:53:40
So I will defer entirely to her expertise.
4:53:43
I would encourage the committee to explore how it might be possible to have similar protections in place for the locations where legal services are provided.
4:53:53
Many of our clients express fear or hesitation about speaking with attorneys often rooted in experiences from their home countries where legal systems are corrupt or untrustworthy, plus there's, confusion about the US legal legal system that can lead to anxiety about sharing information with an immigration attorney that could somehow inadvertently harm them or be reported to government agencies, especially because, as we've heard today, that is absolutely happening outside of legal service providers.
4:54:22
That creates a barrier to accessing justice, and so we would really encourage the council to explore ways that vols and other legal service providers can be safer places for our immigrant clients to seek the legal services that they need.
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Second, we need to increase support for long term noncitizen residents.
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There's been a lot of funded initiatives in the past few years to focus on recently arrived individuals and not to minimize the importance of that at all.
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But those who have been here often for decades are overlooked in the current funding structure even though they face great, if not greater risks, under the new administration.
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An example of that would be client a who's been here since 2023.
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They filed their asylum application.
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They have their work permit.
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Their next hearing in immigration court isn't for several years.
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Contrast that to client b who's been here since 2009, maybe entered with their family as a child, has an old deportation order that they may or may not know about, they are at imminent imminent risk of ICE enforcement and reinstatement of that order or enforcement of that order.
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Yet legal service providers who are funded to be focusing on recent arrivals may feel obligated to deprioritize client b because of what they're being told by their funders to focus on.
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Finally, I wanna emphasize the topic that we've, that's already been talked about a lot today, the rhetoric that we're seeing from city leadership.
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And the recent murder of 17 year old Jeremy Colino is a stark example.
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So on December 5th last year, Jeremy was fatally stabbed in downtown Manhattan, and there were initial reports suggesting that the assailants asked Jeremy and his friends if they spoke English before they attacked them.
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That suggested, obviously, a potentially racially based motivation.
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But then subsequent statements from city officials shifted that narrative, cast doubt on the account, and suggested seemingly without evidence possible gang affiliations among the young victims.
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This abrupt change not only contradicted the survivor's accounts, but caused significant distress for the victims' families, exacerbating their trauma and eroding trust in public officials.
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This is dangerous.
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When public officials, including city leaders, undermine victims' accounts and perpetuate harmful stereotypes, they send a clear message that noncitizens cannot rely on their government for protection.
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And this compounded by federal proposals like the Lake and Riley Act escalate fear, division, and harm to the very communities we seek to support.
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This this committee has the opportunity to ensure our city continues its laudable tradition of protecting all immigrants through policies and through accountability.
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And we thank you so much for the work we do and look forward to continuing to partner with you.