Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Nick Gulotta, Chief of Staff to Council Member Julie Won, on Immigration Services Fraud
2:15:35
·
160 sec
Nick Gulotta, testifying in his personal capacity, advocates for passing Intros 980 and 205 to protect immigrants from fraud and scams in New York City. He emphasizes the need for stronger penalties against fraudulent immigration service providers and more dedicated outreach campaigns to combat deceptive practices.
- Intro 980 would double the current penalty schedule for violations by immigration service providers.
- Intro 205 expands on Local Law 63 of 2017 and requires dedicated outreach campaigns on immigration services fraud.
- Gulotta suggests proactive investigations of businesses and digital platforms, as well as creating a "worst actors" watchlist to inform New Yorkers about bad actors and popular scams.
Nick Gulotta
2:15:35
Great.
2:15:36
Thank you chairs Villas and Menon for being champions on this issue.
2:15:39
My name is Nick Gulotta, and while I serve as the chief of staff to council member Julie Wan, I'm here to testify in my personal capacity as someone who's worked on this issue for many years, and as the former director of outreach and organizing for the mayor's office of immigrant affairs, Moya.
2:15:53
As the federal government implements cruel anti immigrant policies and eliminates critical consumer protections, New York City can step up to protect immigrants by passing intros nine eighty and two zero five.
2:16:06
With every new executive order, New Yorkers are targeted with scams, false promises, and misleading claims.
2:16:12
Signage, flyers, palm cards, and digital ads from notarios that are meant to trick immigrants to believing that they are seeking assistance from an attorney have never been more brazenly advertised than they are today.
2:16:25
The current civil penalty for an ISP for improper advertisements or engaging in prohibited conduct is a mere $3,500 for a first violation.
2:16:36
The amount, that amounts to a slap on the wrist.
2:16:39
The going rate for a single asylum application can be as high as $5,000 on Roosevelt Avenue.
2:16:46
Intro nine eighty doubles DCWP's current penalty schedule, raising the minimum penalty to 7,500 for a first violation, and going up to 20,000 for repeat violations.
2:16:57
This is a critical step to make examples and deter bad actors who seek to take advantage of New Yorkers.
2:17:03
Council member Hanif's intro two zero five expands and makes essential and well considered updates to local law 63 of 2017.
2:17:12
But it's also necessary that Moya and DCWP conduct meaningful ISP fraud specific outreach.
2:17:18
The sort of all inclusive outreach tactics, like including a message about ISP fraud in a thirty minute know your rights presentation, or in a flyer with a list of other resources, while important, are not a replacement for a dedicated outreach campaign that Intro two zero five requires.
2:17:34
Historically, the city has had a complaint driven approach to investigating the audio fraud, and I'll wrap up.
2:17:41
But the evidence of deceptive business practices are in plain view in our communities.
2:17:46
We can start by requiring a minimum number of annual and educational visits and inspections to the thousands of businesses with the words natario or multi services in their names, and similar proactive investigations can be done on digital ads over Facebook, WeChat, WhatsApp.
2:18:02
We'd also just like to mention that we'd highly recommend a sort of worst landlords watch list approach to inform New Yorkers about bad actors and popular scams for DCWP's website.
2:18:13
And happy to answer any questions.