PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Marie Mark, Executive Director of Immigrant Defense Project, on Sanctuary City Policies and Immigrant Protections
5:08:22
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Marie Mark, Executive Director of the Immigrant Defense Project, testified on the importance of sanctuary city policies and the need for stronger protections for immigrants in New York City. She emphasized the urgency of action in light of the incoming federal administration's stance on immigration and criticized local leadership for not adequately addressing violations of existing sanctuary laws.
- Called for the passage of Intro 214 to ensure accountability for violations of sanctuary laws
- Urged support for the New York for All Act to extend immigrant protections statewide
- Highlighted the need to address racism and inequality in the criminal legal system and its impact on immigrant communities
Marie Mark
5:08:22
Thank you for having me and for holding this hearing today.
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I'm Marie Mark, the executive director of the Immigrant Defense Project, where we fight for justice for all, including those targeted by the racist criminal and immigration systems.
5:08:37
Sanctuary is a lot of things.
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We know it is a policy.
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It is a law, but it is also a value.
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It's our city's way of respecting immigrants and guaranteeing that the people who work for our local institutions will not be secret agents of ICE.
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Sanctuary is how the city acts against the injustice of double punishment when immigrant New Yorkers,
Alexa Aviles
5:08:58
disproportionately black immigrants and other
Marie Mark
5:08:58
immigrants of color, are struggling right now, and we have a incoming federal administration that has vowed to attack the immigrants among us.
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The mayor and the governor are abdicating their responsibility to serve all New Yorkers by proposing using resources to facilitate mass deportation.
5:09:27
We're encouraged that this committee and the speaker have stood by our laws, but right now, we need action.
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2 years ago, we sat before this council at a hearing to shine light on how violations of our existing laws result in severe life changing consequences.
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Thousands of pages of email correspondence between DOC and ICE revealed a deep culture of collusion, including routine illegal communication and intentional release delays to facilitate ICE arrests.
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To date, the administration has done nothing to address this, but this city council can take action.
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We're calling on the committee to hold a hearing and pass intro 214, which would ensure the city agencies cannot ignore and misinterpret our sanctuary laws, and instead will be held accountable including through money damages if they violate them.
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This would ensure our sanctuary laws are enforced and not disregarded by a mayor attempting to take unilateral action.
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We are also calling on the council to pass a resolution in support of a state bill, the New York for all act, to ensure immigrants are protected from local collusion throughout our state.
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We must take action to apply we must take action that applies equally to all immigrant New Yorkers.
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This would mitigate the racism and inequality that plagued the criminal legal system by ending the criminalization to deportation to pipeline in our state.
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We cannot be a welcoming city for immigrant New Yorkers while colluding with ICE to funnel community members into immigration jails.
5:11:08
I urge you to take action now.