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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jorge Paz Reyes, Community Organizer at Mixteca
2:10:49
·
171 sec
Jorge Paz Reyes, a community organizer from Mixteca, testifies about the importance of combating immigration fraud and the challenges faced by immigrant communities. He emphasizes the need for better education and protection, sharing a specific case of VAWA fraud that severely impacted a community member.
- Highlights the fear and reluctance of community members to testify about fraud due to concerns about persecution
- Describes a case where a community member spent over $27,000 on fraudulent VAWA application, resulting in severe emotional and financial consequences
- Urges the council to pass Intros 205 and 980 to protect immigrant communities from fraud
Jorge Paz Reyes
2:10:49
Good afternoon council members.
2:10:51
Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today.
2:10:53
My name is Jorge Patreyes and I'm the community organizer Amisteca, a community based organization located in Sunset Park.
2:10:59
We serve both the immigrant community and we have been over a decade in the area.
2:11:04
I'm here with community partners from La Colmena, Ignace, as well as community members from these organizations to express the importance of combat immigration fraud.
2:11:14
At Misteca, we offer a range of social and legal services to immigrant families, and actually we were DOG accredited recently.
2:11:21
Their support is invaluable, but the lack of constant on-site legal counsel still represents a barrier, underscoring the urgent need to better educate and protect the community.
2:11:31
I wanna kinda second what Ilaline said here of the importance of bringing visibility to the issues that have happened and also creating a space that is safe for community members to present these cases and talk about it.
2:11:45
I think throughout when we found out there was gonna be this hearing, did a little bit of a campaign within Mixteca to talk to different community members, and we got a lot of people come forward talking about the immigration fraud.
2:11:57
However, it was really challenging to get them here to testify.
2:12:00
There is a fear of of immigration, of persecution.
2:12:05
A lot of them do not wanna share the names, and and also kinda goes right now this recommendation that when we would present things like that, we shouldn't have cameras on community members because unfortunately, this is the climate that we have right now.
2:12:17
I wanted to talk specifically about a community member that was victim of fraud, especially within this fraud of VAWA.
2:12:25
So VAWA is a pathway for certain survivors of domestic violence to apply for immigration relief without relying on their abusing.
2:12:33
This is a critical protection, but in the wrong hands, it can be very fraudulent and and it could be harmful.
2:12:39
We had a community member that spent over $27,000.
2:12:43
The family and the community member is currently seeking mental health at Mixteca and we're providing all the supports because it has it has devastated her.
2:12:51
And her only support system is her son and her son was accused of abusing her.
2:12:56
So at the interview with immigration, she had to tell the truth.
2:13:00
She had to tell that the lawyer actually was lying and and she was denied the opportunity.
2:13:05
However, this case wouldn't have become so important in detention if it hadn't been covered by the news.
2:13:11
This was very related to a Bronx Lawyer that was done that had done this for years to thousands of cases.
2:13:19
That's why here at Mixteca with La Colmena, Igniz, we kinda bring in this perspective of a small mid sized community organizations and importance of creating pathways and and laws such as two zero five and nine eighty to make sure that we're protecting the community.
2:13:36
Thank you so much and we really urge for you guys to pass this bill.
2:13:39
Have a great day.