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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Carlyn Cowen, Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer of Chinese American Planning Council (CPC)
6:56:54
ยท
137 sec
Carlyn Cowen from the Chinese American Planning Council (CPC) testified about the impact of current policies on immigrant communities and stressed the need for proactive investment in human services and support for immigrants.
- Shared stories of community members afraid to send children to school or access benefits due to immigration concerns
- Emphasized the importance of investing in human services workers through the Just Pay campaign
- Called for increased funding for legal services, public benefits, and programs supporting immigrants across New York State
Carlyn Cowen
6:56:54
Good afternoon, everyone.
6:56:56
Thank you to chair Brannan and the members of the city council for allowing me to testify today.
6:57:00
My name is Carlin Cohen.
6:57:01
I'm the chief policy and public affairs officer of the Chinese American Planning Council, CBC.
6:57:07
As you may know, CBC serves about 80,000 income American, immigrant, and low income New Yorkers each year.
6:57:14
We have a full testimony that we've submitted in written form, but I wanna actually highlight a couple of stories from our community members just over the last month.
6:57:24
And I really wanna highlight these for the city council because I think that these stories of what our community members have been experiencing should really be directing the way that the city council handles this upcoming budget.
6:57:35
Last month, one of our community members asked us if she should be pulling her kids out of school because she was worried that ICE was going to get them either on the way to school or at school or on their way home.
6:57:47
This is not the only community member that has done this.
6:57:50
In fact, while in January, we had a hundred kids at our last teen night, in February, we only had 40 kids coming to the teen night, an important opportunity for students to get social, emotional, and academic learning.
6:58:04
One of our community members asked if they should withdraw from SNAP benefits because they were concerned about how it would be impacting them and their immigration status.
6:58:14
And a number of our seniors have refused to come in for meals because they have been worried about what's gonna happen to them, which means that we have had to come to them to bring them their meals.
6:58:25
All of this is to say that I think that right now, a lot of people have the instinct that we need to wait and see what's gonna happen at the federal level and respond rather than being proactive as a city.
6:58:37
At CBC, what we believe is that we need to be investing now to make sure that our community members feel safe and supported and to ensure that New York remains a sanctuary city.
6:58:48
For us, that looks like investing deeply in our human services workers who are at their front lines of making sure that our community members are supported through the Just Pay campaign and through fully funding all of our services.
UNKNOWN
6:58:59
Your time has expired.
6:59:01
Thank you.
Carlyn Cowen
6:59:02
That looks like investing deeply in legal services, public benefits, and other programs to support immigrants across New York State.
6:59:08
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
6:59:11
Thank