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Q&A
Council Member Avilés questions MOIA on immigrant health care, language access, and ICE engagement
4:01:08
·
4 min
Council Member Alexa Avilés engages in a series of questions with Commissioner Manuel Castro and other representatives from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) regarding various issues affecting immigrant communities in New York City. The discussion covers topics such as health care access for undocumented immigrants, language access in health services, NYPD's policy on e-bike citations, and MOIA's tracking of ICE activities.
- MOIA representatives struggle to provide specific answers on budget allocations for immigrant health care and language access initiatives.
- The conversation reveals MOIA's limited engagement with NYPD regarding the policy change on criminal citations for e-bike traffic violations.
- Council Member Avilés expresses concern about MOIA's lack of proactive involvement in tracking and addressing issues that impact immigrant communities, such as ICE engagement in courts and potentially harmful police policies.
Alexa Avilés
4:01:08
In fiscal twenty the how does the fiscal twenty six executive budget ensure continued or expanded access to health care for undocumented and uninsured immigrants in New York City?
Manuel Castro
4:01:23
I don't have specific details on the on the budget question.
4:01:28
I'll have to defer to my colleagues at the and H and H for that.
Alexa Avilés
4:01:36
Have you recommended any specific funding levels to ensure health care for undocumented and or uninsured immigrants in New York City to your colleagues?
Manuel Castro
4:01:47
Again, we have ongoing conversations with our colleagues.
4:01:50
We defer any funding requests to them as as they oversee the
Alexa Avilés
4:01:55
But have you made any recommendations is my question.
Manuel Castro
4:01:58
Specifically Moya, no.
Alexa Avilés
4:02:00
Okay.
4:02:01
So does the executive of fiscal twenty twenty six executive plan include any resources for improving language access in health related services for immigrants who speak limited English or indigenous languages?
Manuel Castro
4:02:17
For health specific language access, I'm not sure if we have that information in front of us, although we do coordinate language access across the city, and we have ongoing conversations with all of the agencies, including the and H and H on this matter.
Alexa Avilés
4:02:37
Has Moya engaged with the NYPD on their recent policy change given bicycle riders criminal citations?
Manuel Castro
4:02:51
No.
Alexa Avilés
4:02:54
Is Moya aware of the policy of NYPD giving bicycle riders an ebike folks who violate traffic violations, criminal summonses?
Manuel Castro
4:03:07
We're aware, but have not engaged.
4:03:09
No.
Alexa Avilés
4:03:11
Do you think it would be helpful for Moya to provide recommendations to the NYPD implications of providing criminal summonses for traffic violations rather than civil summonses, which is what they did before.
Manuel Castro
4:03:26
Much of these conversations will occur as we hold conversations through our immigrant interagency task force.
Alexa Avilés
4:03:34
So when Moya is when did Moya become aware of this policy change?
Lorena Lucero
4:03:43
I don't have the the exact date, chair.
Alexa Avilés
4:03:48
Perhaps when it was in the newspaper when we all became aware of it is quite possibly.
4:03:54
But I guess now that you know that it is happening, has Moya affirmatively reached out to the NYPD to say this is bad for immigrant community members who rely on this mode of transportation to single them out and unfairly provide a criminal summons which could trigger federal immigration detention and deportation.
4:04:15
Knowing that this policy passed, has Moya affirmatively reached out to say this is wrong thing to do?
Manuel Castro
4:04:22
This is not a specific conversation we've had with the NYPD.
Alexa Avilés
4:04:27
Does Moya think it should have this conversation with the NYPD?
Manuel Castro
4:04:32
These topics are often issues that come up during our interagency task force meetings.
Alexa Avilés
4:04:45
Also, has been keeping track of, I think to her earlier point, in the courts?
4:04:55
Has Molya been keeping track of ICE engagement in the courts at all?
Manuel Castro
4:05:01
As as much as others, you know you know, as much as, you know, we hear reports, again, there's little ways we can know about these instances ourselves because we're not in any way coordinating with non local law enforcement.
Alexa Avilés
4:05:23
Right.
4:05:23
But Moya is Moya keeping track of any ICE engagement across the city at all?
Manuel Castro
4:05:29
Yes.
4:05:29
But again, we it's hard for us to keep track because we don't know of this information and we can't verify this information just like most people who are tracking this.
Alexa Avilés
4:05:43
Has Moya ever considered the potential of being a place where you should track that kind of activity that could help both providers and residents engage?
Manuel Castro
4:05:56
It would be very difficult for us to do that.