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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kelly Agnew-Barajas, Co-Director of Immigrant and Refugee Services Division at Catholic Charities Community Services
5:21:17
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Kelly Agnew-Barajas from Catholic Charities Community Services testified on the need to reevaluate MOIA's structure in city government and emphasized the importance of safeguarding immigrant rights. She also mentioned funding requests for day laborer providers and adult literacy programs.
- Suggested evaluating MOIA's potential to become an agency for more empowerment and tools
- Called for city leaders to align their actions and speech with New York values and current laws
- Requested nearly $5 million for day laborer providers and doubling DYCD adult literacy funding to $24 million in FY2026
Kelly Agnew-Barajas
5:21:17
Thanks so much for having us.
5:21:19
I'm Kelly Agnew Barajas, the other co director of immigrant refugee services with Catholic Charities Community Services.
5:21:26
I wanted to take this opportunity to actually emphasize a point that you brought up in your opening remarks, which is that, you know, we have seen and from our vantage point of having a number of different programs in all sorts of different areas through Moya that we believe that it's time and a structural level to look at how Moya is situated in city government.
5:21:50
You know, it was established in 02/2002.
5:21:53
It was proud to have it be the first office in the country chartered as dedicated to immigrant needs.
5:22:02
But the initial goals were in a smaller scope and they have grown in their portfolio.
5:22:10
They have grown with what they kind of seem to be responsible for, but the structure hasn't kept up.
5:22:18
So, we have, we would strongly recommend that the city council evaluate and you know, this is not my area of expertise, but whatever bodies need to look into what is feasible to look at how Moya can, if it's potentially able to become an agency so that they can be more empowered and have the tools to do their job as they should.
5:22:48
Also, the the point on how our city leaders we would very much like to just voice here that we would like our city leaders to act and speak in ways that align with New York values and current laws, simply put.
5:23:06
So, it's critical now more than ever to safeguard due process of immigrants rights and ensure that local authorities adhere to the policies that exist and limit information sharing based on racial or linguistic profiling.
5:23:21
I'll just echo two very quick points on funding.
5:23:25
One is that we haven't asked before the council for, on behalf of Catholic Charities, but also the entire coalition of day laborers providers for a total of close to 5,000,000.
5:23:37
And, to echo my colleague from the Literacy Assistance Center earlier, the total ask through DYCD adult literacy to double from 12,000,000 to 24,000,000 in '26.
5:23:50
Thank you so much.