PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rosa Cohen-Cruz, Director of Immigration Policy at The Bronx Defenders
4:48:08
ยท
3 min
Rosa Cohen-Cruz, representing The Bronx Defenders, testified about the urgent need for stronger protections for immigrants in New York City. She highlighted ongoing violations of existing sanctuary laws by agencies like NYPD and DOC, emphasizing the negative impact on due process and community safety.
- Called for implementation of Intro 214 and state-level legislation to prevent city resources from aiding ICE enforcement
- Stressed the importance of public guidance, clear policies, and training across agencies to prevent collusion with ICE
- Emphasized the need for accountability mechanisms beyond written guidance to enforce sanctuary laws
Rosa Cohen-Cruz
4:48:08
Hello again.
4:48:10
My name is Rosa Cohen Cruz.
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Now I'm testifying in my capacity as the director of immigration policy for The Bronx Defenders.
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At The Bronx Defenders, we represent many people who face harm at the hands of New York agencies colluding with ICE.
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The NYPD and New York DOC are 2 of the worst actors, not only colluding with ICE, but doing so with explicit anti immigrant animus as this council witnessed during the February 2023 joint hearing of the Immigration and Criminal Justice Committee.
4:48:36
And since then, we've only witnessed increased violations for the protections of immigrants that this city put in place years ago with with no private action or other enforcement mechanisms.
4:48:45
These agencies continue to violate the protections that exist with impunity.
4:48:50
As lawyers working both the criminal immigration courts, we know that when ICE is involved, they don't care about the interests of the city or about New Yorkers, and their involvement undermines due process for those who have been charged with crimes and really creates chaos in both systems, both immigration and criminal.
4:49:05
When someone's attained by ICE with an open criminal case, ICE routinely fails to bring the person to court for their appearance.
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But then meanwhile, in immigration court, immigration judges routinely deny bond because of the open criminal case.
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The case basically remains open because of ICE's inaction, and people are trapped between these two systems without an opportunity for liberty.
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New immigrant New Yorkers, like all New Yorkers who face charges, have a right to due process and to defend themselves and to be be presumed innocent.
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Our city also can't function if millions of our community members fear interaction with city officials.
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All New Yorkers wanna know that their neighbor will not hesitate to call for help if there's a fire or a medical emergency or something else.
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All families deserve for our children to feel safe in public school and everyone needs to be able to use the subway to get to our jobs and homes, yet NYPD now occupies our subways and police officers are often the first faces, our students see when they enter schools.
4:49:59
At that February 2023 hearing, Michael Clark, the director of legislative affairs for the NYPD, actually said it's important he said it's important to state unequivocally that the NYPD does not engage in immigration enforcement.
4:50:12
We know that to be a lie.
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He also went on to say if certain groups of New Yorkers do not feel confident they can interact with the police, they will become permanent victims to be preyed upon by criminals with no fear of the consequences of their actions.
4:50:25
The reality that we've all heard today is that city agencies working with ICE that have violated our city's laws and preyed on immigrants with no fear of the consequences of their actions.
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With all due respect, to Moyah, written guidance is not gonna be enough to, create real accountability.
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We need the solutions that are at hand at the disposal in the city and state.
4:50:45
That includes inter 214 pending before the city council.
4:50:49
It includes laws at the state level, such as New York fraud and the Dignity Detentions Act with this which disentangle New York state resources from aiding in ICE enforcement and detention.
4:50:59
We have the power to make sure state resources are not being funneled into enforcement and detention, and we just need to have the courage to do it.
4:51:08
We also need to make sure we're fund we're fully funding NYFA and ensuring that the policies against collusion with ICE are, not only being shared across agencies, that we have clear policies from agencies, that there's clear training on implementation, but also that that guidance is public.
4:51:26
And I will reserve the rest of my comments for my written testimony.
4:51:30
Thank you.