PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Lisha Luo Cai, Advocacy Coordinator at Asian American Federation
5:58:56
ยท
3 min
Lisha Luo Cai from the Asian American Federation testified on the importance of strengthening protections for immigrant communities in New York City, particularly in light of the incoming Trump administration. She presented data on Asian immigrants in NYC and outlined several policy recommendations to protect and support these communities.
- Emphasized the need for passing legislation like the New York for All Act and Access to Representation Act to protect immigrant information and rights
- Called for the passage of Intro 214 to hold government agencies accountable for breaking sanctuary laws
- Highlighted the importance of language access and support for community-based organizations in providing critical services to immigrant communities
Lisha Luo Cai
5:58:56
How exciting.
5:58:58
Thank you, chair Villas and the committee on immigration, for holding this hearing.
5:59:01
I'm Lisa Luchai, advocacy coordinator at the Asian American Federation, where we proudly represent the collective voice of more than 70 member nonprofits serving 1,500,000 Asian New Yorkers.
5:59:12
We encourage city council and the mayoral administration to strengthen the city's protection for immigrant communities.
5:59:18
To paint a picture because we all love data louder?
5:59:23
Okay.
5:59:24
I gotcha.
5:59:25
Okay.
5:59:25
So to paint a picture because we all love data, the majority of Asian New Yorkers are immigrants with 2 out of 3 in the city being foreign born.
5:59:33
Our newest neighbors who seek asylum rely on our city as a sanctuary.
5:59:37
And of the 170,000 migrant neighbors that have arrived since 2022, about 22,000 are of Chinese descent and 80,000 are of in of Indian descent.
5:59:48
With the growing anti Asian sentiment alongside a president-elect that has vowed to crack down on immigration policy and amplify mass deportation, the city and the state need to work together to ensure these protections are strengthened.
6:00:00
With the immense work that lies ahead and in order to protect our immigrant communities, AF recommends that city council and mayoral administration to, 1, call on the state to reintroduce and pass the New York for all act and access to representation.
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Immigrants shouldn't be burdened with the fear that the sensitive information they entrusted to government and local agencies may be used to their detriment.
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Many of our community members often express apprehension when seeking services from government and local agencies.
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And if immigration protectors protections are threatened, we'll begin to see an increase of community members losing their trust in government, which is what we don't want, and also disenrolling from public benefits out of fear.
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We've already seen it happen in 2019 when Asian noncitizens disenrolled from public benefit programs like SNAP at a rate higher than Asian citizens due to fear, technically due to public charge rule.
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The negative impacts of public charge remain to be seen even today as Asian New Yorkers have reenrolled at a much lower rate than other communities.
6:01:04
Number 2, to pass intro 214 to ensure government agencies are held accountable when they break the law.
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3, continue to support and fund language access work in the city through, language worker cooperatives and the interpreter bank, and lastly, to support and invest in our community based organizations.
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The presence of our newest neighbors have the importance of our CEOs because access to critical immigration legal services for Asian New Yorkers has actually been near impossible to meet the need.
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Putting those who have limited English proficiency, financial means, and may have uncertain immigration status at a risk of being stuck in a cycle of poverty and vulnerability.
6:01:43
And just to give a example and to close-up my statement, our member organizations in Sunset Park, for instance, host monthly legal clinics to assist with a multitude of immigration legal needs.
6:01:51
But due to the lack of capacity, a multitude of immigration legal needs.
6:01:56
But due to the lack of capacity and funding from the city, they're unable to meet the increased demands for this much needed resource.
6:02:03
As such, many of our Asian immigrant Asian migrant neighbors in Sunset Park and in the rest of the city are often lost to the system languaging from the lack of timely resources and immigration assistance.
6:02:15
That really needs to change, especially now more than ever.
6:02:18
AF is grateful to see city council move ahead with policies that protect our immigrant communities, And we thank you and look forward to continuing to working with you.