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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sienna Fontaine, Legal Director / General Counsel of Make The Road New York
7:03:47
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132 sec
Sienna Fontaine, representing Make The Road New York, testified about the critical services their organization provides to immigrant and working-class communities in NYC. She urged the city council to reverse budget cuts and protect vulnerable New Yorkers in the face of anti-immigrant attacks and increased need for services.
- Requested funding for specific programs, including a $25 million rapid response fund for legal representation, $5 million for worker protection enforcement, doubling adult literacy program funding to $24 million, and expanding health initiatives.
- Highlighted Make The Road's work in immigration legal services, know-your-rights trainings, health care access, wage theft recovery, and support for trans Latinx communities and first-generation college students.
- Emphasized the importance of fortifying critical services and protecting New Yorkers of all immigration statuses during the current crisis.
Sienna Fontaine
7:03:47
Good afternoon, chair Brannan and esteemed committee members.
7:03:50
I'm Sienna Fontaine, general counsel at Make The Road New York.
7:03:54
On behalf of our 28,000 members, I thank the committee for the opportunity to be here today.
7:04:00
In the face of anti immigrant attacks, budget cuts, and other assaults on working people, Make The Road is working around the clock to meet the surge in need.
7:04:08
In this moment of crisis, the city must fortify critical services and protect New Yorkers of all immigration statuses.
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We ask the council to use every available tool to reverse the mayor's attacks on immigrants and working class New Yorkers.
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The services that organizations like us provide are essential.
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We work in partnership with many organizations who have testified here today and echo their call for the council to champion the needs of the most underserved and vulnerable in our city.
7:04:32
Here are some examples of the critical work that we're doing right now, providing immigration legal services to reunite families who have been separated by ICE, doing know your rights trainings for thousands of New Yorkers so families know how to handle interactions with enforcement agencies, connecting uninsured families to desperately needed health care, winning back stolen wages, for exploited immigrant workers, organizing with the vibrant trans Latinx community in Queens, and providing high quality college access support to low income high school students who are first generation college goers.
7:05:04
We're in dire need of resources to meet the needs of our communities.
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Here are five programs that we need to preserve and expand.
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The rapid response legal collaborative, which provides high quality legal representation to individuals in the on the precipice of deportation by creating a 25,000,000 rapid response fund, allocate an additional 5,000,000 to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to ensure strong enforcement of paid sick leave and the new minimum payroll for delivery workers, double baseline funding for adult literacy programs funded through DYCD from 12,000,000 to 24,000,000, restoring the cuts from last year and enabling programs to bolster services in a time of increased need, protect New Yorkers, health by expanding overall funding for the Access Health Initiative to 4,000,000, allocate 2,300,000.0
UNKNOWN
7:05:52
dollars time is expired.
7:05:53
Thank you.
Sienna Fontaine
7:05:54
And we look forward to continuing these, conversations, and we'll submit more detailed testimony.
7:05:58
So thanks so much.