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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Karla Ostolaza, Managing Director of Immigration Practice at The Bronx Defenders
3:48:54
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Karla Ostolaza from The Bronx Defenders testifies about the need for increased funding for the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) to combat the rise in immigrant detentions and deportations. She emphasizes the importance of legal representation for detained immigrants and requests double the current budget for each organization involved in NYIFUP.
- Ostolaza reports a significant increase in detentions, including long-term green card holders and asylum seekers.
- She warns about the imminent reopening of Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed detention facility in Newark.
- Ostolaza urges the council to act quickly to ensure resources are available to fight against increased ICE activity, especially if the mayor allows ICE back into Rikers Island.
Karla Ostolaza
3:48:54
Good afternoon.
3:48:55
I am Carla Solasa, managing director of the immigration practice at the Bronx Defenders.
3:48:59
Thank you, sheriff Aviles, for your leadership and the opportunity to testify today.
3:49:04
This committee's leadership ambition made possible the launching of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project twelve years ago, ensuring universal access to representation for detained immigrant New Yorkers in deportation proceedings.
3:49:16
Together with Brooklyn Defender Services and the Legal Aid Society, we're requesting $11,060,000 for each organization, double our current budget, to ensure we have the resources proportional to the mass detention and deportation campaign we're fighting against, a deportation campaign that has particularly targeted immigrant New Yorkers.
3:49:37
Since January, we have witnessed a staggering increase in detentions.
3:49:40
Our recent clients include long term green card holders detained at JFK after returning from visiting family abroad, undocumented parents and spouses of US citizens swept up in home raids and on their way to work, and asylum seekers detained at ICE check ins in front of their children while doing exactly what our government asked them to do.
3:50:00
Last week, ICE announced the imminent reopening of Delaney Hall, a detention facility in Newark with 1,000 beds.
3:50:07
We know ICE has the operational capacity to exponentially increase detention and deportations of New Yorkers.
3:50:14
And this capacity will be supercharged if the mayor follows through with his plan of welcoming ICE back into Rikers to conduct uncounseled coercive interviews.
3:50:24
We urge the council to act now to ensure we have the resources to fight back.
3:50:28
97% of detained immigrants without legal representation are unsuccessful in challenging their deportation.
3:50:35
Access to NIFA representation increases the chances of avoiding deportation case by more than a %.
3:50:43
By reducing the amount of time our clients spend in ICE custody, we lower the social and economic cost of homelessness, foster care, and unemployment created by immigration detentions and avoidable deportation.
3:50:56
We have represented thousands of detained New Yorkers and have the expertise to train new advocates to build capacity and meet this moment.
3:51:05
NYFOP's promise is that no detained immigrant New Yorker will have to fight against family separation and deportation alone.
3:51:12
With the council's support, we will be able to keep this promise.
3:51:15
Thank you.