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Q&A
MOIA's monitoring of ICE detentions at city shelters
1:38:47
·
177 sec
Chair Alexa Avilés inquires about ICE detaining people at city shelters and MOIA's response to these incidents. Director Molly Schaefer discusses the agency's monitoring efforts.
- MOIA has been monitoring actions by ICE at city shelters
- The agency is dissecting interactions to ensure policies, rules, and laws are being followed appropriately
- Officials are reluctant to discuss individual cases
- There is ongoing confusion about protocols, which the administration has attempted to address with a flowchart
- Access policies in the shelter system have not changed but have been enhanced with additional layers
Alexa Avilés
1:38:47
So we've we've clearly seen are are you aware that ICE has detained people at city shelters, And what are you doing about it?
Molly Schaefer
1:39:04
So we've been monitoring any actions by ICE.
1:39:08
I don't want to talk about individual cases.
1:39:10
Don't think that's would
Alexa Avilés
1:39:11
not want you to.
Molly Schaefer
1:39:12
Yes, but we have been monitoring and dissecting those interactions to make sure that policies are being followed appropriately and rules and laws are being followed appropriately.
Alexa Avilés
1:39:26
So at this moment in time, your position is that if ICE enters a building, those protocols are privileged and confidential for New York City workers?
Lorena Lucero
1:39:39
That that's not my position, chair.
Deborah Lee
1:39:41
Okay.
Lorena Lucero
1:39:42
What I am saying is that the trainings and information that are shared with our staff, I can't talk about it in this in an open space because it's privileged and confidential to protect the folks who are on the ground and just staff across the city.
1:39:57
That's what I'm saying.
1:39:57
If they I don't know if Molly, if you want to share anything specific in regarding to any oversight that you might have on sites.
Alexa Avilés
1:40:04
Yeah.
1:40:04
I think I think just before you before you jump in, what is what is clear is there is an awful lot of confusion around what to do, which has been precipitated by the executive.
1:40:20
So if you can't go on the record and actually give a clarity on what that is, we're gonna continue to face confusion with on the ground workers who are still very, very confused about what to do.
Molly Schaefer
1:40:35
Thank you for your concerns.
1:40:36
I know there's confusion out there.
1:40:38
I think there was a, the law department sent out a flow chart to try to simplify things that I believe is public.
1:40:47
And so we're happy to send that.
1:40:49
They tried to make it very simple for people as they were going it.
1:40:52
I will say that our access policies and our shelter systems have not changed throughout this.
1:40:57
They've just been sort of enhanced by this added layer.
1:41:02
But we follow the direction of the law department on this.
1:41:06
Questions, any confusion, the point is to know who on-site you can go to who can escalate those to a legal person that is either the general counsel or the general counsel's designee so that it can be resolved there and then.
Alexa Avilés
1:41:20
Yeah.
1:41:21
We're we're glad that there was a flowchart that was provided after the the confusion that was perpetuated by the administration.
1:41:33
I I will follow-up afterwards because this this is still not resolved, and we we still have a lot of incoming to address on this issue.